A History Lesson: A Good Friday Massacre In Quebec
By Cait Platt
Today marks the 28th anniversary of the Good Friday Massacre, the fight between the Montreal Canadiens and Quebec Nordiques. To put it simply, April 20, 1984 was the day all H E double hockey sticks broke out, the day the puts all other hockey fights to shame. “The Battle of Canada” took on a whole new meaning.
Since 1979, when the WHA merged with the NHL and the Nordiques joined the Canadiens in Quebec, until 1995, when the Nordiques were relocated to Colorado, the Canadiens and Nordique battled it out. In 1984, game 6 of the first round of playoffs, the chippiness took over and it became something scary.
In Montreal, the gloves dropped almost immediately, something fans have started to see occur far more often now a days. But that was just the start because by the end of the game 252 penalty minutes were awarded between the two teams.
The biggest problem of the game? There was a fight at the end of the second period, players were thrown out after the fight, but were allowed back in for the third period, where yet another fight broke out.
What happened that lead up to all of this? Prior to this game there was an enormous political issue, Quebec wanted to declare sovereignty. The Canadiens were a symbol of the status quo, those who wanted to remain Canadian, while the Nordiques symbolized the rebellion. That tension spilled over on the ice. With the teams splitting the season that year and then splitting the playoff match up, until game 5 when the Canadiens shut out the Nordiques 4-0, in Quebec. That devastating loss plus the political drama lead to the mess you see here:
The 2nd period penalties?
10 player ejected
QUE – Goulet 3:52
MON – Chelios 15:20
QUE – Hunter 15:20
MON – Green 17:39
QUE – Hunter 17:39
MON – Ludwig ( (maj)) 17:59
QUE – Stastny A ( (maj)) 17:59
QUE – Dore 19:44
MON – Smith 19:48
MON – Carbonneau 20:00
MON – Hamel 20:00
MON – Nilan ( (maj)) 20:00
MON – Nilan ( (maj)) 20:00
MON – Tremblay ( (maj)) 20:00
MON – Sevigny ( (maj)) 20:00
MON – Hunter ( (maj)) 20:00
MON – Mcphee ( (maj)) 20:00
MON – Nilan (Misconduct (10 min)) 20:00
MON – Nilan (Game Misconduct) 20:00
MON – Tremblay (Game Misconduct) 20:00
MON – Sevigny (Game Misconduct) 20:00
MON – Hunter (Game Misconduct) 20:00
MON – Mcphee (Game Misconduct) 20:00
QUE – Hunter 20:00 ; QUE – Hunter 20:00
QUE – Hunter ( (maj)) 20:00
QUE – Weir ( (maj)) 20:00
QUE – Malarchuk ( (maj)) 20:00
QUE – Moller ( (maj)) 20:00
QUE – Stastny P ( (maj)) 20:00
QUE – Sleigher ( (maj)) 20:00
QUE – Moller (Misconduct (10 min)) 20:00
QUE – Moller (Misconduct (10 min)) 20:00
QUE – Hunter (Game Misconduct) 20:00
QUE – Weir (Game Misconduct) 20:00
QUE – Malarchuk (Game Misconduct) 20:00
QUE – Stastny P (Game Misconduct) 20:00
QUE – Sleigher (Game Misconduct) 20:00
While the current playoffs are far from this sort of insanity, the lack of politically charged games is helpful, the scary truth is by the 3rd round, we could be seeing this sort of game. This isn’t hockey, this isn’t good ol’ fashioned, old time hockey, this bar room brawling that needs to be left there. Control needs to happen, the fights may be epic but the game becomes a farce. Let’s see some hockey.