Season Opener

Quebec Nordiques v Philadelphia Flyers, January 21, 1995

The Spectrum, Section Z Row 8




A hockey season opener in January? This was a lockout shortened NHL season. My seats were behind the net pretty low. This was the Nordiques last season before moving to Colorado and changing their names to the Avalanche. The franchise was in trouble with money and the lockout didn't help matters.

The Nordiques have not been in first place in 10 years but have been fueled by a couple of years of #1 draft picks, including Eric Lindros in 91, who held out for a trade which eventually landed him in Philadelphia.

The league's Canadian teams found it difficult to compete in a new age of rising player salaries, which was made even more difficult by a weakening Canadian dollar (these teams' revenues are earned in Canadian, but salaries are paid in US). Quebec City was by far the smallest market in the NHL, and the second-smallest market in North America to host a major league team (behind only Green Bay, Wisconsin). It didn't help that even in their best years, they were unable to escape the long shadow of the Canadiens. Additionally, Quebec City is a virtually monolingual Francophone city. Unlike in Montreal, nearly all public address announcements were only given in French. Then as now, there were no privately-owned English-language radio stations, and the only English-language newspaper was a weekly. All of these factors severely limited the Nords' marketability, and made free agents and draftees (most notably Lindros) skeptical about playing for them.

This season in the lockout shortened schedule of 48 regular season games, the lame duck Nords would win 30 of them to finish first in the the Northeast (former Adams Division). The following season, their first in Colorado, they won the Stanley Cup.

It didn't take long for the season to get kicked off. Andri Kovelenko scored 1:36 into the game with assists being credited to Joe Sakic and Wendell Clark. The Flyers goaltender was former Nordique, Ron Hextall.

Less than 5 minutes into the game Quebec's Craig Wolinon was accessed a major, a game misconduct, gross misconduct, holding and a match-attempt to injure penalty. He was back on the ice and flagged again at the 18:52 mark of the 1st for roughing.

The Flyers Rod Brind'Amour tied the game up in the 2nd with assists going to Lindros and Patrick Juhlin.

The 3rd found Quebec scoring 2 more for a season opening win. Owen Nolan scored with Kovdelenko and Peter Forsberg getting assists. This was Forsberg's first NHL game.
Forsberg was one of 5 players the Flyers traded away to obtain holdout Eric Lindros in 1991.
The Flyers Dave Brown and Quebec's Chris Simon had a major league toe to toe in the third.

Quebec wins 3-1