Réjean Tremblay and the Quebecor Vrai platform flatter the nostalgic fiber of hockey fans with a new documentary series on the heyday of the rivalry between the Canadiens and the Nordiques. A period of national affirmation which was marked, among other things, by the emergence of Québec inc., does not fail to highlight in broad strokes the author of Throw and count. Something to feed hope among supporters of the Nordiques, whose big comeback is still awaited, seven years after the inauguration of an amphitheater in the national capital.
Nordic Canadians. Rivalry is above all a series on hockey that brings together all the great players of this blessed era when Quebec had a hockey club and where Montreal was still able to win the Stanley Cup. In turn, Michel Bergeron, Jean Perron, Serge Savard and dozens of other speakers rehash their memories about the Lindros affair, Alain Côté’s goal or the Good Friday battle. We can even hear Guy Lafleur and director Jean-Claude Lord, who were still alive at the time of filming, talk about how they experienced the strong resentment between the two teams.
Under the impetus of the still very independentist Réjean Tremblay, who piloted the project with the journalist from The Press Mathias Brunet, the series goes far beyond the framework of sport. The rivalry between the Canadians and the Nordiques was also that between Montreal and the regions, between the blues and the reds, between the sovereignists and the federalists.
“It was the golden age of Quebec. […] A Quebec that was capable of competing withestablishment English-speaker [qui était incarné par le Canadien]. It was the time when Alain Bouchard launched Couche-Tard, when Guy Laliberté started Cirque du Soleil, when Serge Godin created CGI. These are also the beginnings of Céline and René… What I mean is that the rivalry between the Canadiens and the Nordiques accompanied the great changes of this era,” explained Réjean Tremblay during the press screening on Monday.
A political rivalry
After the arrival of the Nordiques in the National League in 1979, the Canadian quickly understood that the Quebec team, which proudly wore the fleur-de-lys, could outdo it and become the French-speaking team. For fear of being perceived as the club of the elite WASP, the CH will hire Ronald Corey and Serge Savard to replace a senior management who was then completely English-speaking, we report in the first episode of this series which has eight. .
In the metropolis as in the capital, the leaders will put the French-speaking players forward to delight the hearts of Quebecers living in the regions. Brewers O’Keefe and Molson, respectively owners of the Nordiques and the Canadiens, will wage a merciless battle on the shelves to try to influence the fans.
But since the disappearance of the Nordics in the 1990s, Sainte-Flanelle has had a monopoly on Quebec and has ended up taking French speakers for granted, denounces Réjean Tremblay bluntly. “The departure of the Nordiques allowed the Canadians to be mediocre. The Quebec market belongs to them, whether they are good or bad, good or bad. They no longer need French-speaking players. They want as little as possible to better control the message, so that the players do not go and talk to journalists, ”laments the columnist of the Montreal Journal.
At 78, he has lost none of his outspokenness or his passion. He is currently working on a new TV series project, The seventh, camped on the seventh floor of the Bell Center, where the offices of the big bosses of the Habs organization are located.
Always fervent of the Nordiques, Réjean Tremblay still believes in their great comeback, but he specifies that “if it happens, it will be unexpected, as was the case with the Jets, in Winnipeg”.
When is the return?
Also present during the press screening on Monday, the President and CEO of Quebecor, Pierre Karl Péladeau, reiterated his desire to bring the Nordiques back to Quebec, but displayed cautious optimism: “We are a solid company, a broadcaster that is able to attract income. There is a solid hockey base in Quebec. All the ingredients are there [….] I don’t know what more we can do. »
Pierre Karl Péladeau avoids blaming the slowness of the negotiations on the owners of the Canadian and the leaders of the National Hockey League. But Réjean Tremblay is not as diplomatic. “Do you think that the Molson family and all the Anglos have an interest in sitting at the same table as the former leader of the PQ? » declares with irony the author of Scoop and young wolves.
The departure of the Nordiques allowed the Canadians to be mediocre. The Quebec market belongs to them, whether they are good or bad, good or bad. They no longer need French-speaking players.
If by chance the Nordiques ended up coming back, Réjean Tremblay is convinced that the rivalry would resume even more vigorously with the Canadiens. The sports journalist is even of the opinion that it would perhaps be even more acrimonious than that described in the series, so much the gap between Montreal and the rest of Quebec has widened in recent years. “Quebec is losing Montreal. It’s going to take us another anchor point. When I go to see my buddies in Chicoutimi, they tell me they don’t want to go to Montreal. They tell me that they don’t feel at home anymore,” he emphasizes in his still strong Saguenay accent.
This fervent sovereigntist believes above all that the return of the Nordics would correct a historical error. For Réjean Tremblay, the team’s move to Colorado, five months before the second referendum in 1995, undoubtedly caused the Yes camp to lose precious votes in the greater Quebec City region, where support for sovereignty s was found to be lower than in the other French-speaking regions. He regrets that Mayor Jean-Paul L’Allier and Prime Minister Jacques Parizeau failed to grasp the importance of the issue by letting the Nordiques go.
“It sent the message that if you are not able to keep your hockey club, you are not able to be a nation”, concludes the one for whom hockey is intrinsically political.