| 21 March 2009
So, in the past few days, I’ve been thinking about how little I know about the Quebec Nordiques. A big reason why Avs fans don’t know much about the Nordiques has to do with the way the team was marketed when it was moved from Quebec to Denver. Essentially, the franchise completely started over, at least from an identity standpoint. New name, new conference, new uniforms and logo, heck - new country and new language. And that makes sense to me. The Denver Nordics? Yeah - that doesn’t work. Ok - makes a little more sense than the Utah Jazz (originally from New Orleans) or the LA Lakers (originally from Minnesota) but still lame. But I think that Avalanche management made a mistake to not acknowledge that franchise’s past in any capacity. Here are two things from Quebec that they should carried over into Denver:
1. The Retired Numbers:
The franchise retired these 4 numbers while they were in Quebec:
3 - J. C. Tremblay, D, 1972–79
8 - Marc Tardif, LW, 1974–83
16 - Michel Goulet, C, 1979–90
26 - Peter Stastny, C, 1980–90
So why not carry that over here? I’m not saying that each of these need to be hanging next to Roy’s and Bourque’s banners at Pepsi Center, but a single, modest blue and white banner with the 4 numbers and a Nords logo - what’s wrong with that? If that’s too crazy, then make it unofficial, but just simply not issue these numbers to players.
How cool would it have been to have Peter Stasnty take #26 down and give it to Paul? Oh, and the next time you see Tucker take a horrible, selfish penalty late in a game we’re losing by a goal, just think that he’s wearing Hall of Famer Michel Goulet’s retired #16.
2. The Goal Horn:
Our honky horn sucks. Quebec had a very unique, and much cooler goal horn - check it out here. That should have been moved over, too. Ok, so the “Let’s Go Nordiques” song after the horn has to go, so keep the horn and play “Rock ‘N’ Roll Part 2” (aka “The Hey Song”) after the horn.
Avs management weren’t giving Colorado fans enough credit if they thought we wouldn’t “get it”. If fans in Phoenix can carry over the “White Out” playoff tradition from Winnipeg, there is no doubt fans in Colorado could understand and even appreciate these little bits of franchise history. (Well, if they noticed them at all...)
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