Boston Bruins: Bergeron Excited To Play Against Quebec
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Patrice Bergeron is from L’Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec and grew up cheering for the Nordiques. It goes without saying that many people from Quebec were devastated when the Nordiques were relocated to Colorado in the ’90s, and Bergeron was no exception. “I was always a Nordiques fan and I ind of followed Colorado after that because it was the same team, right? I was not very happy with the ’96 win. I was happy, but disappointed it was the same guys but they moved to Colorado.” The 1996 win that Bergeron was referring to was the Stanley Cup win.
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With the expansion process in full swing and Quebec and Las Vegas both currently in the final stage of the expansion process, excitement is at an all-time high in Quebec right now. “I’ll go to the grocery store and then I’ll just be walking through the aisles and people will stop me and be like ‘What do you think? Do you think it’s going to happen?'” Bergeron said during an interview at the NHL’s player media tour. Bergeron continued to say “I’m like ‘I don’t know, I hope so.’ I hope for Quebecers but I don’t know more than you do so I can’t really tell you.”.
Quebec city has gone 20 years as of 2015 without an NHL franchise, with the Nordiques moving south in 1995 to become the Avalanche. 20 years is a very long time by any measure, and it’s a travesty that a hockey city like Quebec has had to go on for so long without a franchise. Bergeron went on to say “Once they announced the expansion it kind of went nuts”.
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With anticipation for a new franchise looming, Quebec went to work for years and built a new, NHL-caliber stadium in which a potential franchise could play. The arena is called the Videotron Centre, and Bergeron described it as “huge” and went on to say that “it’s twice the size (of the Colisee, the former home of the Quebec Nordiques) and it’s beautiful.” Excitement is so high in Quebec right now that 170,000 people have signed up to take a tour of the new arena (Source found here).
As most players grow up wanting to play for their favorite teams, Bergeron understands that simply playing against his childhood team would be just as special. “I think it would be amazing (to have a team in Quebec) Bergeron said, and he went on to discuss playing against them “I’m going to play for the Bruins against them, but just to be playing the Nordiques there’d be a special meaning to it. Just the fact that I’m from there, it’s my hometown. I could play in front of my family. I grew up watching the Nordiques and playing against them would be special.”
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Patrice Bergeron knows that special opportunities in sports are few and far between. He understands just as well as anyone that the league is a business, but it’s still nice to see him enjoying this as a fan, as well as a player.
The league returning a team to Quebec City would be good for all parties involved with the exception of the Montreal Canadiens, who will be losing half of their Quebec market to the returning Nordiques (assuming they are still referred to as the Nordiques).
Follow Brandon Share-Cohen @FansidedBrandon to discuss all things Boston Bruins and sports