1994–95 Quebec Nordiques season

1994–95 Quebec Nordiques
Division	1st Northeast
Conference	1st Eastern
1994–95 record	30–13–5
Home record	19–1–4
Road record	11–12–1
Goals for	185
Goals against	134
Team information
General manager	Pierre Lacroix
Coach	Marc Crawford
Captain	Joe Sakic
Alternate captains	Wendel Clark Mike Ricci
Arena	Le Colisée
Team leaders
Goals	Owen Nolan (30)
Assists	Joe Sakic (43)
Points	Joe Sakic (62)
Penalty minutes	Chris Simon (106)
Plus/minus	Curtis Leschyshyn (+29)
Wins	Stephane Fiset (17)
Goals against average	Jocelyn Thibault (2.34)

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 Penuins. 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 leage 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

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Game log

No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	W	January 21, 1995	3–1	@ Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	1–0–0
2	W	January 24, 1995	5–1	Washington Capitals (1994–95)	2–0–0
3	W	January 27, 1995	7–3	@ Buffalo Sabres (1994–95)	3–0–0
4	W	January 28, 1995	2–0	New York Rangers (1994–95)	4–0–0
5	W	January 31, 1995	5–2	Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	5–0–0
6	L	February 2, 1995	4–5	@ New Jersey Devils (1994–95)	5–1–0
7	W	February 4, 1995	2–0	New Jersey Devils (1994–95)	6–1–0
8	W	February 5, 1995	3–1	Hartford Whalers (1994–95)	7–1–0
9	W	February 8, 1995	3–2	@ Hartford Whalers (1994–95)	8–1–0
10	W	February 9, 1995	4–3	@ Boston Bruins (1994–95)	9–1–0
11	W	February 11, 1995	5–2	Ottawa Senators (1994–95)	10–1–0
12	W	February 14, 1995	3–2	@ New York Islanders (1994–95)	11–1–0
13	W	February 16, 1995	4–2	@ Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	12–1–0
14	L	February 18, 1995	2–4	@ Washington Capitals (1994–95)	12–2–0
15	W	February 19, 1995	4–1	@ Florida Panthers (1994–95)	13–2–0
16	L	February 21, 1995	4–5	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	13–3–0
17	T	February 23, 1995	6–6 OT	Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	13–3–1
18	T	February 25, 1995	1–1 OT	Boston Bruins (1994–95)	13–3–2
19	L	February 27, 1995	5–7	Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	13–4–2
20	W	March 1, 1995	8–2	Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95)	14–4–2
21	T	March 4, 1995	1–1 OT	Buffalo Sabres (1994–95)	14–4–3
22	W	March 6, 1995	6–3	New Jersey Devils (1994–95)	15–4–3
23	W	March 7, 1995	5–4	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	16–4–3
24	L	March 9, 1995	1–2	@ Hartford Whalers (1994–95)	16–5–3
25	W	March 11, 1995	2–1	New York Islanders (1994–95)	17–5–3
26	W	March 16, 1995	3–2	Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	18–5–3
27	L	March 18, 1995	4–5	@ Montreal Canadiens (1994–95)	18–6–3
28	W	March 20, 1995	5–4 OT	Florida Panthers (1994–95)	19–6–3
29	W	March 22, 1995	6–2	Boston Bruins (1994–95)	20–6–3
30	W	March 25, 1995	2–1	New York Rangers (1994–95)	21–6–3
31	W	March 26, 1995	11–4	@ Ottawa Senators (1994–95)	22–6–3
32	L	March 28, 1995	3–5	@ Buffalo Sabres (1994–95)	22–7–3
33	W	March 30, 1995	5–4	@ New York Rangers (1994–95)	23–7–3
34	L	March 31, 1995	4–6	@ Washington Capitals (1994–95)	23–8–3
35	W	April 2, 1995	7–5	Ottawa Senators (1994–95)	24–8–3
36	L	April 5, 1995	5–6	@ Montreal Canadiens (1994–95)	24–9–3
37	W	April 6, 1995	3–2	Montreal Canadiens (1994–95)	25–9–3
38	T	April 8, 1995	2–2 OT	@ Ottawa Senators (1994–95)	25–9–4
39	W	April 12, 1995	4–0	@ Boston Bruins (1994–95)	26–9–4
40	W	April 14, 1995	5–2	Buffalo Sabres (1994–95)	27–9–4
41	W	April 16, 1995	4–2	Washington Capitals (1994–95)	28–9–4
42	L	April 18, 1995	2–5	@ New York Islanders (1994–95)	28–10–4
43	L	April 20, 1995	2–5	@ Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95)	28–11–4
44	L	April 22, 1995	2–4	@ Florida Panthers (1994–95)	28–12–4
45	T	April 26, 1995	1–1 OT	Montreal Canadiens (1994–95)	28–12–5
46	W	April 29, 1995	4–1	Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95)	29–12–5
47	L	April 30, 1995	2–4	@ New Jersey Devils (1994–95)	29–13–5
48	W	May 3, 1995	4–1	Hartford Whalers (1994–95)	30–13–5

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 stats

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

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals
      MIN = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Transactions

• April 7, 1995: LW Bill Huard traded from Ottawa to Quebec for D Mika Stromberg and Quebec's fourth round pick in 1995 Entry Draft.

Awards and records

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

Draft picks

NHL draft

= NHL All-Star

= 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)

References

• Nordiques on Hockey Database