With over 30 teams in the NHL there are often rivalries that crop up between cities. In the era of the original 6 there was Montreal and Toronto, in more recent times it has been Edmonton and Calgary. In the 80's and 90's there was a rivalry born between the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL and the Quebec Nordiques of the WHA. Whether in the WHA or the NHL, the Nordiques and the Canadiens games were always hotly contested.

Quebec City is very protective of its hockey sons. Players like Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur all excelled at hockey within the Quebec leagues and made teams like the Quebec Citadels and the Quebec Aces their home teams, and Quebec did not like it when they went "down the road" to play in Montreal.

It was in 1971, when Guy Lafleur was in his rookie season that the WHA announced they would begin playing the following year with 12 teams. Quebec didn't wait too long, and by the following February 6, Quebec businessmen had purchased the rights to the San Francisco franchise and moved it to Quebec, and announced the team's name…The Quebec Nordiques, which loosely translated into "the Northmen".

The Nordiques wasted little time in going after the big names in Montreal hockey. They recruited J.C. Tremblay on July 20, 1972, and later signed the "Rocket" himself as the first coach. They had also offered Jean Beliveau $1 million to come out of retirement, but he decided to remain with the Montreal front office.

The Nordiques played their first game on October 11, 1972 in a 3-0 loss to the Cleveland Crusaders. It was only a matter of days after that, that Maurice Richard admitted that he wasn't a coach, and Jacques Plante took on the role of general manager. By the time their third season the Nordiques had players like Marc Tardiff and Rejean Houle and a host of other minor pro stars were filling Le Colisee and were ready to challenge for the Avco Cup.

The following season the Nordiques signed 18 year old Real Cloutier. This started a trend within the WHA to sign 18 year olds and this practice later forced the NHL to lower their draft age to 18. In the 1975 season the Nordiques played the Houston Aeros with the trio of Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe, but were unsuccessful. In 1977, bolstered by a $2 Million investment by a local brewery, the Nordiques led by Marc Boileau led the team to their first Avco Cup Championship.

The success of the Nordiques was not nearly as impressive as the success of the Montreal Canadiens, especially Guy Lafleur who was in the midst of a 6 year run of 50 goals or more per season. There was a large movement afoot for a championship between the Stanley Cup Champions and the Avco Cup Champions. League officials weren't quick to jump at the opportunity, but it would be just a matter of a couple of years before the leagues would unite.

But before that event occurred, the WHA had managed to attract such junior talent as Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, the Howe brothers and the door was opened to European talent like Anders Hedberg and Kent Nilsson. It was midway through the 1978-79 season that the Indianapolis Racers folded and so began the merger of the WHA and the NHL. After the smoke had cleared there were 4 WHA teams admitted to the NHL, the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and the New England Whalers. The Birmingham Bulls and Cincinnati Stingers were dissolved and the player dispersed throughout the NHL via the entry draft.

The entry draft provided for some quality talent both veteran and junior. One of the best draft picks came in the form of Czech star Anton Stastny in 1979 and in 1980 the Nordiques managed to draft Anton's older brother Peter. Quebec had also managed to hire Michel Bergeron from the Quebec Junior league. That Stastny's, along with stars like Michel Goulet, Jacques Richard and Dale Hunter and others, the Nordiques finished 4th in their division in the 1980-81 season, but were eliminated by Philadelphia in the preliminary round after forcing the series to 5 games.

Part of their success was due to the Stastny brothers. Both of them scored 39 goals and Peter added 70 assists, winning the Calder Trophy. Up until the 1992-93 season, Peter held the NHL record for the most points by a rookie, which was surpassed by Teemu Selanne with 132 points. Anton had 85 points himself, which would have proved to be a rookie leading total in just about any other year.

It wasn't until the 1981-82 season that the "Battle of Quebec" really heated up. Although the Canadiens finished the season with 43 points more than the Nordiques, the two met in the playoffs and the stage was set. The teams were tied at 2 games a piece in the best of 5 series. With less than 12 minutes left in the game, the Nordiques were ahead 2-0 when Montreal scored two quick goals to send the game into overtime. A scramble around the Montreal net found Montreal goalie Rick Wamsley down, with the puck apparently under his pad. But the puck had actually squirted free and was deep inside the net. The Nordiques had won, and just as in the movies, they felt that the curse of the Montreal Canadiens both past and present had been lifted. The Nordiques went on to beat Boston in the Adams Division finals but lost the Wales Conference finals to the New York Islanders.

The Canadiens and Nordiques had many memorable games both regular season and throughout the playoffs. The Canadiens won 62 of those games, lost 39 and tied 12. The Habs also defeated the Nords 3 of 5 times in the playoffs. The Nordiques however, managed to convince Guy Lafleur out of retirement and the "Flower" returned to hockey for 2 more seasons with the Nordiques before hanging up the skates for good.

The 1993 season saw one of the most impressive line ups ever accumulated. Players such as Joe Sakic, Valery Kamensky, Mats Sundin, Adam Foote and Owen Nolan all had Nordiques sweaters on. One of the most noticeable players absent from the Nordiques line up was Eric Lindros. Lindros had publicly said he would not play for the Nordiques and the Nordiques said they would not trade him. The soap opera continued for a year and it would take an arbitrator to straighten out the mess. Lindros was finally traded for Peter Forsberg, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, Ron Hextall, 2 draft picks and $15 million in cash. In 2000-01 while with the Philadelphia Flyers, Lindros is once again pulling the same childish stunts, wanting out of Philly in favour of Toronto. It is ironic that if Lindros had stayed with the Nordiques he would have eventually won the Stanley Cup he so desperately sought. You may have to be 18 to play in the NHL, but apparently you don't have to act like it.

In 1993-94 the front office was lobbying the city, the province and the community to upgrade the facilities at Le Colisee. Low revenues, high costs were forcing the team to look for concessions in order to survive. These discussions went on for 2 years, and despite a brief stint with success as Marc Crawford helped the team to the top of the Adams Division, the team was sold and moved to Colorado, under the ownership of Comsat Entertainment Group.

Denver was no stranger to hockey. Since the 1950's, Denver had played host to several teams from various leagues including the Colorado Rockies of the WHA. The Rockies came about when the Kansas City Scouts moved after their second season. At the end of the 1981-82 season the Rockies were moved to New Jersey as the New Jersey Devils. After several seasons in the "I", the Grizzlies captured the IHL Championship. When the Avalanche came to Denver, the Grizzlies were moved to Salt Lake City.

In 1995 the Avalanche acquired Claude Lemieux and Sandis Ozolinsh to bolster their ranks, but perhaps the biggest acquisition was that of Patrick Roy from Montreal. Roy was disgruntled with the Montreal management and made it obvious during an 11-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings when Roy let in 9 goals, and then blew up at the team bench. By December 6, the deal was done, and Roy was on his way to Denver. Later that season the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in just their first year in the League.

This was a bitter disappointment for the people of Quebec City because less than 12 months after the Nordiques had left Quebec, they were celebrating the Stanley Cup.

While the nucleus of the greats such as Sakic, Deadmarsh, Forsberg, Roy and Ozolinsh stayed with the Avalanche, they were not able to make it to the finals for years to come. With the Pepsi Center opening in 1999, the Avalanche still are a team to respect, and one that can strike at any time with a lethal outcome to their rivalry.