Canadiens vs. Nordiques? Battle of Quebec returns as Avalanche wear throwback jerseys

MONTREAL — The last time the Montreal Canadiens played at home against a team wearing the classic Quebec Nordiques jerseys was April 5, 1995 at the Montreal Forum.

The Canadiens erased a 5-3 third-period deficit that night to win 6-5, and since NHL home teams wore white jerseys back then, the Nordiques wore blue.

One month later, it was announced that the Nordiques would be moving to Denver to become the Colorado Avalanche. Four months after that, Nathan MacKinnon was born.

It’s been a long time.

MacKinnon and his Avalanche teammates were back in those blue Nordiques jerseys for a game in Montreal on Thursday, facing the Canadiens in their now customary home reds.

Memories of the heated Battle of Quebec still resonate with fans. (Denis Brodeur / NHLI via Getty Images)

The Canadiens-Nordiques rivalry was one of the most heated in NHL history. Ask anyone of a certain age in the province what they think of when someone says Good Friday, and a good number of them will talk about the Good Friday Massacre between the Canadiens and Nordiques, a vicious bench-clearing brawl during the 1984 Stanley Cup playoffs.

It was a rivalry that divided the province and sometimes divided families.

Not so in the case of Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis, who grew up in suburban Laval, Que., just north of Montreal.

“No,” St. Louis said Thursday morning. “We were all Canadiens fans.”

Canadiens forward Zachary Bolduc comes from the Trois-Rivières, Que., area, a town almost equidistant between Montreal and Quebec City, and an area that was once divided between the rivals.

He’s not sure the extent to which his family was divided by the rivalry — Bolduc was born almost eight years after the Nordiques moved to Colorado — but he joked he would find out once the game started.

“I’ll have to ask my dad; they’re coming to the game tonight, so I’ll have to see who he’s cheering for,” Bolduc said. “No, I’m pretty sure he was a Canadiens fan, but he must have gone to Nordiques games.”

Bolduc played junior for the Quebec Remparts and says the memory of the Nordiques still resonates there.

“People still talk about the Nordiques and how much they want them to come back to the league,” he said. “The Nordiques left a mark on the people there, so it’s fun that the Avalanche are playing in those sweaters tonight.”