1994–95 Quebec Nordiques season

The 1994–95 Quebec Nordiques season was the twenty-third season of operation of the Nordiques and the last season that the team played in Quebec. The Nordiques would finish first over-all in the Eastern Conference, but lost in the first round to the New York Rangers. After the season, the club would be sold and relocated to Denver, Colorado.

Regular season

The Nordiques exploded out of the gate, winning 5 games in a row and 12 of their first 13. Although they were an average team on the road, going just 11–12–1, the Nordiques had the best home record in the league: 19–1–4. Quebec's only defeat at home came on February 27 in a 7-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Captain Joe Sakic finished fourth in the league in points (62), Owen Nolan tied for third in the league in goals (30) and finished first in the league in game-winning goals (8), while Peter Forsberg led all rookies in points (50). Forsberg would go on to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie of the 1994–95 season. The team finished first in scoring in the league with 185 goals and was one of only two Eastern Conference teams to score at least one goal in all of their 48 regular-season games (the Buffalo Sabres were the other team). Quebec went on to finish first in the Eastern Conference with 65 points. The Nordiques tied the Flyers for most hat tricks scored during the regular season, with 6. Owen Nolan had 3, and Wendel Clark, Uwe Krupp and Scott Young each had 1.

Season standings

Northeast Division
No.	CR		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
1	1	Quebec Nordiques	48	30	13	5	185	134	65
2	3	Pittsburgh Penguins	48	29	16	3	181	158	61
3	4	Boston Bruins	48	27	18	3	150	127	57
4	7	Buffalo Sabres	48	22	19	7	130	119	51
5	10	Hartford Whalers	48	19	24	5	127	141	43
6	11	Montreal Canadiens	48	18	23	7	125	148	43
7	14	Ottawa Senators	48	9	34	5	117	174	23

^[1]

Schedule and results

No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record	Attendance
1	W	January 21, 1995	3–1	@ Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	1–0–0	17,380
2	W	January 24, 1995	5–1	Washington Capitals (1994–95)	2–0–0	14,277
3	W	January 27, 1995	7–3	@ Buffalo Sabres (1994–95)	3–0–0	16,232
4	W	January 28, 1995	2–0	New York Rangers (1994–95)	4–0–0	14,382
5	W	January 31, 1995	5–2	Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	5–0–0	14,141
6	L	February 2, 1995	4–5	@ New Jersey Devils (1994–95)	5–1–0	12,096
7	W	February 4, 1995	2–0	New Jersey Devils (1994–95)	6–1–0	13,220
8	W	February 5, 1995	3–1	Hartford Whalers (1994–95)	7–1–0	13,207
9	W	February 8, 1995	3–2	@ Hartford Whalers (1994–95)	8–1–0	8,032
10	W	February 9, 1995	4–3	@ Boston Bruins (1994–95)	9–1–0	14,448
11	W	February 11, 1995	5–2	Ottawa Senators (1994–95)	10–1–0	14,231
12	W	February 14, 1995	3–2	@ New York Islanders (1994–95)	11–1–0	10,225
13	W	February 16, 1995	4–2	@ Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	12–1–0	17,065
14	L	February 18, 1995	2–4	@ Washington Capitals (1994–95)	12–2–0	13,410
15	W	February 19, 1995	4–1	@ Florida Panthers (1994–95)	13–2–0	14,703
16	L	February 21, 1995	4–5	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	13–3–0	17,181
17	T	February 23, 1995	6–6 OT	Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	13–3–1	13,301
18	T	February 25, 1995	1–1 OT	Boston Bruins (1994–95)	13–3–2	14,389
19	L	February 27, 1995	5–7	Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	13–4–2	15,399
20	W	March 1, 1995	8–2	Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95)	14–4–2	13,131
21	T	March 4, 1995	1–1 OT	Buffalo Sabres (1994–95)	14–4–3	13,517
22	W	March 6, 1995	6–3	New Jersey Devils (1994–95)	15–4–3	13,178
23	W	March 7, 1995	5–4	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	16–4–3	17,181
24	L	March 9, 1995	1–2	@ Hartford Whalers (1994–95)	16–5–3	8,886
25	W	March 11, 1995	2–1	New York Islanders (1994–95)	17–5–3	14,525
26	W	March 16, 1995	3–2	Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	18–5–3	15,399
27	L	March 18, 1995	4–5	@ Montreal Canadiens (1994–95)	18–6–3	17,959
28	W	March 20, 1995	5–4 OT	Florida Panthers (1994–95)	19–6–3	13,013
29	W	March 22, 1995	6–2	Boston Bruins (1994–95)	20–6–3	14,096
30	W	March 25, 1995	2–1	New York Rangers (1994–95)	21–6–3	15,399
31	W	March 26, 1995	11–4	@ Ottawa Senators (1994–95)	22–6–3	10,171
32	L	March 28, 1995	3–5	@ Buffalo Sabres (1994–95)	22–7–3	14,899
33	W	March 30, 1995	5–4	@ New York Rangers (1994–95)	23–7–3	18,200
34	L	March 31, 1995	4–6	@ Washington Capitals (1994–95)	23–8–3	13,629
35	W	April 2, 1995	7–5	Ottawa Senators (1994–95)	24–8–3	14,335
36	L	April 5, 1995	5–6	@ Montreal Canadiens (1994–95)	24–9–3	17,469
37	W	April 6, 1995	3–2	Montreal Canadiens (1994–95)	25–9–3	15,399
38	T	April 8, 1995	2–2 OT	@ Ottawa Senators (1994–95)	25–9–4	10,575
39	W	April 12, 1995	4–0	@ Boston Bruins (1994–95)	26–9–4	14,448
40	W	April 14, 1995	5–2	Buffalo Sabres (1994–95)	27–9–4	15,399
41	W	April 16, 1995	4–2	Washington Capitals (1994–95)	28–9–4	15,325
42	L	April 18, 1995	2–5	@ New York Islanders (1994–95)	28–10–4	13,758
43	L	April 20, 1995	2–5	@ Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95)	28–11–4	17,705
44	L	April 22, 1995	2–4	@ Florida Panthers (1994–95)	28–12–4	14,703
45	T	April 26, 1995	1–1 OT	Montreal Canadiens (1994–95)	28–12–5	15,399
46	W	April 29, 1995	4–1	Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95)	29–12–5	15,399
47	L	April 30, 1995	2–4	@ New Jersey Devils (1994–95)	29–13–5	16,129
48	W	May 3, 1995	4–1	Hartford Whalers (1994–95)	30–13–5	15,399

Playoffs

The Nordiques faced the New York Rangers in the first round of the 1995 NHL Playoffs. On paper, the Nordiques were the clear favorite, since they had a much better record and had won the season series against the Rangers. However, New York's players had more playoff experience, since most of them had been members of the 1994 Stanley Cup champion team. This fact, combined with the Nordiques players' playoff inexperience and inability to maintain their effective power play, proved to be the ultimate factors in the series, as New York defeated Quebec 4 games to 2. Although each team had allowed only 134 goals during the regular season (tied for 9th in the league), it was an offensive series, as 44 goals were scored (25 by New York, 19 by Quebec) over the 6 games. To make things even worse, the following year, they would win the Stanley Cup in their first year in Colorado.

Quebec vs. NY Rangers
Date	Away	Home
May 6	NY Rangers 4	5 Quebec
May 8	NY Rangers 8	3 Quebec
May 10	Quebec 3	4 NY Rangers
May 12	Quebec 2	3 NY Rangers	OT
May 14	NY Rangers 2	4 Quebec
May 16	Quebec 2	4 NY Rangers
NY Rangers wins series 4–2

Relocation to Colorado

Had the Nordiques stayed in Quebec instead of heading for Denver, this would have been the franchise's new logo starting in 1996.

In the 1994–95 shortened season of 48 games, the Nordiques played well and finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference. However, the team faltered in the postseason and was eliminated in the first round by the defending Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers.

The playoff loss proved to be Quebec's swan song in the NHL as the team's financial troubles increasingly took center stage, even in the face of renewed fan support over the previous three years. Quebec City was by far the smallest market in the NHL, and the second-smallest market in North America to host a big-league team (behind only Green Bay, Wisconsin). The league's Canadian teams (with the exception of Montreal, Toronto, and to a lesser extent, Vancouver) found it difficult to compete in a new age of rising player salaries. This made many of the players concerned about their marketability, especially since the Nords always played in the long shadow of the Canadiens. In addition, most players were skittish about playing in what was virtually a unilingual Francophone city. Then as now, there were no privately owned English-language radio stations in the city, and only one privately owned English-language television station. The only English-language newspaper is a weekly. Unlike in Montreal, public address announcements were given only in French.

Aubut asked for a bailout from Quebec's provincial government. It didn't go through, and in May 1995, shortly after the Nordiques were eliminated from the playoffs, Aubut was forced to sell the team to a group of investors in Denver, Colorado. The franchise was moved to Denver where it was renamed the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche would win the Stanley Cup in their first season after the move, and add another in 2001.

The Nordiques had planned to change their logo, colours, and uniforms for the 1995–96 season, and the new design had already appeared in the Canadian press.

Player statistics

Regular season

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	+/-	PPG	SHG	GWG
Sakic, JoeJoe Sakic	C	47	19	43	62	30	7	3	2	5
Forsberg, PeterPeter Forsberg	C	47	15	35	50	16	17	3	0	3
Nolan, OwenOwen Nolan	RW	46	30	19	49	46	21	13	2	8
Young, ScottScott Young	RW	48	18	21	39	14	9	3	3	0
Ricci, MikeMike Ricci	C	48	15	21	36	40	5	9	0	1
Clark, WendelWendel Clark	LW/D	37	12	18	30	45	-1	5	0	0
Kamensky, ValeriValeri Kamensky	LW	40	10	20	30	22	3	5	1	5
Bassen, BobBob Bassen	C	47	12	15	27	33	14	0	1	1
Kovalenko, AndreiAndrei Kovalenko	RW	45	14	10	24	31	-4	1	0	3
Krupp, UweUwe Krupp	D	44	6	17	23	20	14	3	0	1
Deadmarsh, AdamAdam Deadmarsh	RW	48	9	8	17	56	16	0	0	0
Leschyshyn, CurtisCurtis Leschyshyn	D	44	2	13	15	20	29	0	0	0
Lefebvre, SylvainSylvain Lefebvre	D	48	2	11	13	17	13	0	0	0
Lapointe, ClaudeClaude Lapointe	LW/C	29	4	8	12	41	5	0	0	0
Simon, ChrisChris Simon	LW	29	3	9	12	106	14	0	0	0
Rucinsky, MartinMartin Rucinsky	LW	20	3	6	9	14	5	0	0	0
Wolanin, CraigCraig Wolanin	D	40	3	6	9	40	12	0	0	0
Foote, AdamAdam Foote	D	35	0	7	7	52	17	0	0	0
MacDermid, PaulPaul MacDermid	RW	14	3	1	4	22	3	0	0	1
Huard, BillBill Huard	LW	7	2	2	4	13	2	0	0	0
Gusarov, AlexeiAlexei Gusarov	D	14	1	2	3	6	-1	0	0	1
Norris, DwayneDwayne Norris	RW	13	1	2	3	2	1	0	0	1
Corbet, ReneRene Corbet	LW	8	0	3	3	2	3	0	0	0
Finn, StevenSteven Finn	D	40	0	3	3	64	1	0	0	0
Fiset, StephaneStephane Fiset	G	32	0	3	3	2	0	0	0	0
Laukkanen, JanneJanne Laukkanen	D	11	0	3	3	4	3	0	0	0
Miller, AaronAaron Miller	D	9	0	3	3	6	2	0	0	0
Klemm, JonJon Klemm	D	4	1	0	1	2	3	0	0	0
Karpa, DaveDave Karpa	D	2	0	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0
Snow, GarthGarth Snow	G	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Thibault, JocelynJocelyn Thibault	G	18	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SO	SA	SV	SV%
Fiset, StephaneStephane Fiset	1879	32	17	10	3	87	2.78	2	968	881	.910
Thibault, JocelynJocelyn Thibault	898	18	12	2	2	35	2.34	1	423	388	.917
Snow, GarthGarth Snow	119	2	1	1	0	11	5.55	0	63	52	.825
Team:	2896	48	30	13	5	133	2.76	3	1454	1321	.909

Playoffs

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	+/-	PPG	SHG	GWG
Young, ScottScott Young	RW	6	3	3	6	2	3	0	1	0
Bassen, BobBob Bassen	C	5	2	4	6	0	2	0	0	0
Forsberg, PeterPeter Forsberg	C	6	2	4	6	4	2	1	0	0
Sakic, JoeJoe Sakic	C	6	4	1	5	0	-4	1	1	1
Nolan, OwenOwen Nolan	RW	6	2	3	5	6	2	0	0	0
Ricci, MikeMike Ricci	C	6	1	3	4	8	4	0	0	0
Clark, WendelWendel Clark	LW/D	6	1	2	3	6	-6	0	0	0
Simon, ChrisChris Simon	LW	6	1	1	2	19	-1	0	0	1
Wolanin, CraigCraig Wolanin	D	6	1	1	2	4	5	0	0	0
Krupp, UweUwe Krupp	D	5	0	2	2	2	-2	0	0	0
Lefebvre, SylvainSylvain Lefebvre	D	6	0	2	2	2	5	0	0	0
Kamensky, ValeriValeri Kamensky	LW	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Laukkanen, JanneJanne Laukkanen	D	6	1	0	1	2	-2	0	0	0
Corbet, ReneRene Corbet	LW	2	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
Deadmarsh, AdamAdam Deadmarsh	RW	6	0	1	1	0	-3	0	0	0
Finn, StevenSteven Finn	D	4	0	1	1	2	-4	0	0	0
Foote, AdamAdam Foote	D	6	0	1	1	14	-3	0	0	0
Kovalenko, AndreiAndrei Kovalenko	RW	6	0	1	1	2	-3	0	0	0
Leschyshyn, CurtisCurtis Leschyshyn	D	3	0	1	1	4	-1	0	0	0
Fiset, StephaneStephane Fiset	G	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Huard, BillBill Huard	LW	1	0	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0
Lapointe, ClaudeClaude Lapointe	LW/C	5	0	0	0	8	-1	0	0	0
MacDermid, PaulPaul MacDermid	RW	3	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0
Snow, GarthGarth Snow	G	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Thibault, JocelynJocelyn Thibault	G	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%
Fiset, StephaneStephane Fiset	209	4	1	2	16	4.59	115	99	.861
Thibault, JocelynJocelyn Thibault	148	3	1	2	8	3.24	76	68	.895
Snow, GarthGarth Snow	9	1	0	0	1	6.67	3	2	.667
Team:	366	6	2	4	25	4.10	194	169	.871

^[2]

Note:

Pos = Position; GPI = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals

Min, TOI = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Transactions

The Nordiques were involved in the following transactions during the 1994-95 season.

Trades

March 23, 1995	To Calgary Flames Ed Ward	To Quebec Nordiques Francois Groleau
April 7, 1995	To Ottawa Senators Mika Stromberg 4th round pick in 1995 - Kevin Boyd	To Quebec Nordiques Bill Huard

Free agents

Player	New Team
Niklas Andersson	New York Islanders
Len Esau	Calgary Flames

Roster

1994-95 Quebec Nordiques

Goaltenders

Defensemen

2 – Sylvain Lefebvre
4 – Uwe Krupp
5 – Alexei Gusarov
6 – Craig Wolanin
7 – Curtis Leschyshyn
22 – Janne Laukkanen
24 – Jon Klemm
29 – Steven Finn
31 – Aaron Miller
52 – Adam Foote
59 – Dave Karpa

Wingers

11 – Owen Nolan
12 – Chris Simon
13 – Valeri Kamensky
14 – Dwayne Norris
15 – Bill Huard
17 – Wendel Clark
18 – Adam Deadmarsh
20 – Rene Corbet
23 – Paul MacDermid
25 – Martin Rucinsky
48 – Scott Young
51 – Andrei Kovalenko

Centres

9 – Mike Ricci
19 – Joe Sakic - C
21 – Peter Forsberg
28 – Bob Bassen
47 – Claude Lapointe
Coach: Marc Crawford

Awards and records

Peter Forsberg, Calder Trophy
Peter Forsberg, NHL All-Rookie Team

Draft picks

NHL draft

= NHL All-Star ^[3]

= Hall of Famers

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	College/junior/club team
1	12	Wade Belak (D)	Canada	Saskatoon Blades (WHL)
1	22	Jeff Kealty (D)	United States	Catholic Memorial High School (USA)
3	35	Josef Marha (Centre)	Czech Republic	Dukla Jihlava (Czech Republic)
3	72	Chris Drury (Centre)	United States	Fairfield College Preparatory School (Conn.)
4	87	Milan Hejduk (Right wing)	Czech Republic	HC Pardubice (Czech)
9	217	Tim Thomas (Goaltender)	United States

^[4]

References

Nordiques on Hockey Database

↑ Standings: NHL Public Relations Department (2008). Dave McCarthy; et al., eds. THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Official Guide & Record Book/2009. National Hockey League. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-894801-14-0.
↑ "1994-95 Quebec Nordiques Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com". hockey-reference.com. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
↑ Players are identified as an All-Star if they were selected for the All-Star game at any time in their career.
↑ http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl1994e.html

1994–95 NHL season

Northeast	Boston Buffalo Hartford Montreal Ottawa Pittsburgh Quebec

Atlantic	Florida New Jersey NY Islanders NY Rangers Philadelphia Tampa Bay Washington

Central	Chicago Dallas Detroit St. Louis Toronto Winnipeg

Pacific	Anaheim Calgary Edmonton Los Angeles San Jose Vancouver

See also	Draft Supplemental Draft Lockout Legion of Doom Stanley Cup Playoffs Stanley Cup Finals

Quebec Nordiques seasons

1970s	1970–71 . 1971–72 . 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80

1980s	1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90

1990s	1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 Colorado

Colorado Avalanche

Formerly the Quebec Nordiques Founded in 1995 Based in Denver, Colorado

Franchise	Team General Managers Coaches Players Captains Draft picks Seasons Current season

History	NHL expansion draft Records Award winners

Personnel	Owner: Kroenke Sports Enterprises Stan Kroenke, chairman General manager: Joe Sakic Head coach: Patrick Roy Team captain: Gabriel Landeskog Current roster

Arenas	McNichols Sports Arena Pepsi Center

Affiliates	AHL San Antonio Rampage ECHL Fort Wayne Komets

General managers	Lacroix Giguere Sherman Sakic

Head coaches	Crawford Hartley Granato Quenneville Sacco Roy

Media	Altitude KKFN

Culture and lore	Colorado Rockies Quebec Nordiques Bernie Howler Frozen Fury Todd Bertuzzi–Steve Moore incident Avalanche–Red Wings brawl "Stanley's Cup" (South Park)

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