Playing NHL Games In Quebec City Is The Least Teams Can Do If The Nordiques Aren’t Returning

It’s hardly a secret, but it’s as true as ever – the Quebec City market desperately wants an NHL team.

On Monday, the Ottawa Senators announced they’ll play two pre-season games in Quebec City, facing the New Jersey Devils on Sept. 28 and the Montreal Canadiens Sept. 30. Sens owner Michael Andlauer also said at a press conference Monday that the Sens also have a “vision” of playing a couple of their regular-season games in Quebec City, but he and team president Cyril Leeder then had to clarify that they’re committed to keeping the team in Ottawa-Gatineau.

Related: ‘The Team Is Not Moving’: Ottawa Senators Rattle Fans After Suggesting Regular-Season Games In Quebec City

There were questions last pre-season about how many fans would attend the Los Angeles Kings’ exhibition games against the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers in Quebec City. But more than 17,000 fans attended the Kings and Bruins game, and aside from the debate about whether the province needed to pay a multi-million-dollar subsidy to make it happen, the matches were a hit for those who rarely get to see an NHL game.

Related: ‘I’ll Never Forget It’: Hockey Fans Flock To Quebec City For Kings-Bruins Game Amid Subsidy Saga

Even the Jan. 19 PWHL game between the Ottawa Charge and Montreal Victoire was a massive success, drawing in more than 18,000 fans.

Those positive results and the announcement of more games are great news for Quebec hockey fans, even if nobody should be getting ahead of themselves and presuming there’s a clear path ahead for Quebec City to land its own NHL team soon. The best Quebec City can hope for is to host a few regular-season games, the same way European cities have been hosting games for a while now. And given how much passion Quebec City has for the NHL product, the least the league can do is to stage a couple of games in Quebec’s capital city.

Now, we’re not here to pour cold water all over the hopes and dreams of Quebec City fans. To be sure, landing a team in Salt Lake City may have seemed a pipe dream for quite some time, but the stars lined up perfectly last year, and voila – the Utah Hockey Club was born. Could the same thing happen for Quebec City? Sure, in theory, that’s absolutely possible, although the challenges with the Canadian dollar, having English-speaking team members and families in the dominant French-speaking demographic and the overall financial viability are seen to be drawbacks that come up every time Quebec City is discussed.

Related: NHL Expansion: Quebec City Has NHL-Ready Rink and Passion. Will It Get Another Shot?

If the pre-season games give the residents a team to cheer for other than the Canadiens, that’s all the better for Andlauer & Co. Like the Canadiens, regional Senators games are already available to watch in Quebec City during the season, so this is a way for them to interact with the people in their Sens TV region, even if they’re a five-hour drive away.

The passion was never in doubt. Fans old enough to remember the defunct Nordiques and Quebec hockey fans in general would be elated with a team coming to Quebec City either via expansion or relocation.

Even if, for better or worse, cities like Atlanta, Houston and Phoenix are ahead of Quebec City in the pecking order of cities wanting a team, hosting pre-season games there and potentially one or two regular-season games should benefit everyone. The league avoids most of the challenges it’d have by having a permanent team in Quebec City, and the residents at least get some NHL action to make memories for years to come.

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