The documentary series Nordic Canadians – The Rivalry will be available on the Vrai platform, starting November 29. As launch approaches, The newspaper publishes an overview of the work with texts published today and tomorrow.
We imagined having covered the question, but the new documentary series Nordic Canadians – The Rivalry brings a different perspective, a certain step back, vis-à-vis the precious time when, from 1979 to 1995, Montreal and Quebec each had their own club in the National Hockey League.
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Eight episodes, more than 90 speakers. The series, produced by Fair-Play in collaboration with Quebecor Content, will arrive on the Vrai platform on November 29.
As an unexpected gift for fans, the late hockey player Guy Lafleur, who played for both teams, is one of the many protagonists who were interviewed for this anthology work.
Screenshot
The famous # 10 delivered an interview as part of the filming of the documentary series “Canadians-Nordics – The rivalry”.
“It was not just one team against the other, it was one population against the other, sums up the man who died last April. Quebec and Montreal, even forgetting hockey, there is always a rivalry anyway. »
“We were stuck between a rock and a hard place, we had to endure the rivalry of journalists and the rivalry between supporters,” added Lafleur, about his vision as the main player in these major confrontations. .
Divide, then reassemble
If the rivalry between the Canadiens and the Nordiques divided the province for more than 15 years. Those nostalgic, both in Montreal and in Quebec, inevitably miss this era.
Archival photo
A furious fight between CH’s Chris Nilan and Randy Moller of the Quebec Nordiques.
“In retrospect, this rivalry, when we talk about it in Quebec, it is an element that becomes unifying,” rightly comments Anouk Bélanger, professor in the department of social and public communication at UQAM.
Beyond hockey, it must be seen as a situation that helped French-speaking Quebecers to take their place.
In the early 1980s, the Canadiens had Morgan McCammon as president, Irving Grundman as general manager and Bob Berry as head coach. Then, the Nordiques arrived with Marcel Aubut, Maurice Filion and, very quickly, Michel Bergeron in these respective positions.
Archival photo
The day after the series in 1985 where the Nordiques won in 7 games against the Canadiens, the supporters of Quebec expressed their joy
The defeat of the CH against the Nordiques during the 1982 playoffs had eventually led to the appointment of Ronald Corey as president of the Montreal club and, consequently, to that of Serge Savard as general manager.
It was, in a way, a revolution. Not always quiet, that one…
Many debates
Archival photo
We see Marc Tardif, of the Nordiques, and Guy Lafleur, in the uniform of the Canadian.
Since the departure of the Nordiques in 1995, there have been many debates on the lack of importance of the Francophone fact for the organization of the Canadiens.
Let us recall, among other things, the controversial appointment of Randy Cunneyworth as interim head coach in December 2011, the few Quebec hockey players drafted by Montreal from one year to the next, or even, more recently, the arrival of American Jeff Gorton, as vice-president of hockey operations.
However, the Montreal team remains the only local team behind which the Quebecer can now line up. If, at least, the CH had won the Stanley Cup since, but no.
Vrai is a Quebec platform by subscription. It is offered to Helix TV and Helix TV App customers, on the QUB app and now on illico TV.