What are the Nordics left in Denver?

(Denver) to highlight the 30th anniversary of the Moving the Nordic Quebec in Colorado, The sun went to Denver to see what remains of fleurdelisés in the city of the avalanche. Inventory.

The American rocky mountains have just fallen into the dark when Joe Sakic crosses the door of the large glass conference room located in the team offices in Ball Arena, the club’s home since 1999.

Dressed in a long beige coat, the President of Hockey Operations of the Avalanche sits comfortably for the interview provided with the author of these lines, just over an hour at the start of a game against Kings of Los Angeles.

Even before the first question, Sakic takes news from Quebec, in particular its favorite restaurants, at Guido and the Café de la Paix, both closed for several years already.

When it is pointed out to him that he resists the test of time in the avalanche better than his favorite tables of the time, the former captain of the Blues increases his shoulders by sketching a wide smile, a sympathetic boil that the Quebecer have not forgotten, even 30 years after his departure.

At the conclusion of his 13 spent seasons as a player of the avalanche, Sakic became a special advisor and governor of the club, before being promoted vice-president of hockey operations and then managing director.

In the summer of 2022, after the conquest of the Stanley Cup, “Mr. Avalanche” sold his DG post to Chris Macfarland. Here he is now at the head of the team’s hockey operations for which he put on the skates until 2009.

A family story

Mitchell, his 29 -year -old eldest son, became assistant to the club video coach a few years ago, another proof that the Sakic family and the avalanche are one, like salt and pepper in the middle of a table.

In Denver, the 55 -year -old man is one of the rare survivors of the 1995 Nordic edition. The ex-hockey player of Croatian origin and his wife Debbie live in the same house of Cherry Hills where their twins, Chase and Kamryn, born in 2000 grew up.

There is also the therapist, Matt Sokolowski, who has not forgotten the trouble and the frustration of his colleagues attended by equipment and trainers, the two René, Lavigueur and Lacasse, and the physiotherapist Jacques Lavergne, left in plan during of the sale of the Quebec team. But Joe Sakic is the headliner of the deceased Nordic in Denver.

Always convinced that Marcel Aubut did everything to avoid selling the Nordic, Sakic still enjoys immense popularity, as at the time he burned the western junior league with the broncos of Swift Current.

Ex-Numéro 19 has aged, but his passion for hockey has never declined. “I hardly play even even for fun, it’s too difficult!” he smiles. I prefer to stay healthy for golf! »»

The proof of his inflexible popularity rating is the impressive number of Nordic blue sweaters, with his name embroidered behind, in the arena, a brand of respect that makes him heart …

“It’s a beautiful wink in Quebec, where it all started, to say Sakic. It is a mark of respect for the origins of the avalanche. The northern sweaters are still sold very well, they are so beautiful! »»

In the Souvenir store of the club at Ball Arena, the jackets, the wool sweaters and the kangaroos with the image of the Blues are numerous and varied. Blue Fleur de Lys appears practically as a seller as in the Quebec capital.

In the city center, it is not uncommon for the owner of the supervisory shop 5280 Custom Framing, Jarrod J. Perrott, highlights souvenir items linked to the flowering past of the avalanche, the sport representing nearly 30 at 40 % of its turnover.

“Nostalgia sells a lot, attests to the one who had just supervised a sweater from the old number 19 a few weeks before our visit. I think people enjoy knowing where the avalanche comes from. I don’t know much about Quebec, but we have a lot of respect for what could have happened there before. »»

An impressive popularity

A few stone jets from there, the manager of Sportsfan, Elliott Sweazey, is even proud to place products derived from the old Quebec team in the entrance to the Souvenir boutique which he has managed for four years.

However, this is not the offer that is missing in this crazy city of its sports clubs, the avalanche competing with a major baseball training, a team from the National Football League and one in basketball.

This is without counting a MLS soccer club and the Pioneers of the University of Denver, double title champions of American university hockey (NCAA)!

The retro Fleurdelisés sweater sells so well at the 16 store^e Rue Mall that the man born in 1995, the year of the creation of the avalanche, would like to see the city hockey team exploiting it even more.

“Unfortunately, I heard rumors wanting Quebec City to get a team again …” said the manager with an almost disappointed air.

On the shelves of his shop, the place reserved for the caps, the tuques and the northern sweaters is so impressive that one wonders if the beloved club of Quebecers is not on the eve of coming back to life.

Only broncos manage to resonate his cash register even stronger than the avalanche. The most popular player in the store customers? You guessed it, it’s Joe Sakic.

The latter has not set foot in Quebec since 2013, the year of his son Chase’s participation in the International Hockey Tournament Pee-Wee, an “unforgettable” week during which he had played tourist guides with the Thunderbirds of Colorado.

“I showed them the essentials of the city, the best places to eat, where we lived …” says the native of Burnaby in British Columbia, who, incidentally, has never seen the Videotron center.

“I heard that it was beautiful,” he said before asking what happened to the old Colosseum.

What would he say to his many admirers of Quebec who have lost faith to one day see the Nordic, not what remains in Denver, but the real of real, with whom he played for seven years?

“I do not know what will happen, but I know the passion of Quebec people well enough to say that the supporters would really be there if we gave them another team one day,” finished Sakic.