Battle of Quebec (ice hockey)

The Battle of Quebec is a former National Hockey League (NHL) rivalry between the Montreal Canadiens and Quebec Nordiques. The rivalry lasted from 1979–80 to 1994–95. The teams played against each other five times in the NHL playoffs, and the Canadiens won three of the series. One meeting in 1984 resulted in the Good Friday Massacre, a game in which multiple brawls happened. The Battle of Quebec extended to politics, in which the Canadiens and Nordiques became symbols for rival parties, and beer distribution, as the teams were both owned by competing breweries.

The Nordiques began play in 1972, in the World Hockey Association (WHA). As part of the new league's raid on NHL talent, the team signed J. C. Tremblay, a Canadiens defenceman, to a five-year contract. Quebec also hired former Montreal players Maurice Richard and Jacques Plante as head coaches. The Canadiens–Nordiques rivalry began in the 1979–80 season, when the Nordiques became one of four former WHA teams to join the NHL as part of the NHL–WHA merger. The Canadiens originally were one of five teams to vote down the merger. However, the Canadiens' owner, Molson Brewery, feared that Canadian cities with WHA teams in the deal would boycott the brand, and the team supported the merger in a subsequent vote. At first the teams were placed in different divisions; Montreal was in the Norris Division, while Quebec was given a spot in the Adams Division.

The teams played their first game against each other in Montreal on October 13, 1979, and the Canadiens won 3–1. The Nordiques hosted the rivalry for the first time on October 29, and upset the Canadiens 5–4; the Ottawa Citizen wrote that "The victory marked the end of a decades-old Quebec belief that Montreal was unbeatable." The rivalry was fairly even in its first few years; from the 1979–80 to 1981–82 regular seasons, the Canadiens were 6–5–5 in the series, and had just one win away from the Montreal Forum.

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