Skip to content
Your daily dose of hockey
News

No Québécois will have participated in the match of the century in Montreal
Mathis Therrien
No Québécois will have participated in the match of the century in Montreal
Credit: Getty Images

As practically everyone mentioned, last night’s game between Canada and the United States was THE hockey match of the century in Montreal.

It had been since 2016 that the best Canadian and American players had faced off in an official match, and we were fortunate to witness this rivalry return to Montreal and the Bell Centre.

It truly was a historic game that we witnessed last night, regardless of the disappointing outcome.

We were able to see the best players in the world in action on the ice of the Bell Centre in a real competitive match, not just a fun game like the All-Star Game.

Honestly, we couldn’t have wished for better as hockey fans.

In fact, yes, we could have wished for better as Quebec fans.

Oh really, how so?

Well, consider that Montreal has just hosted the match of the century, and no Quebec player participated in this match.

Indeed, there were no Quebec players on the ice at the Bell Centre last night, and frankly, when you think about it, it’s really unfortunate.

There is only one Quebec player on the entire Canadian team, and that is the third-string goaltender, Samuel Montembeault.

For the rest, just Canadian players from other provinces.

And know that it’s not just a coincidence that there are not more Quebec players on the team; it’s simply because there weren’t any good enough to make the Canadian team.

And that is really a very telling sign of the decline of Quebec hockey.

Let’s say we are far from the good years when Quebec players were the strength of Canada, whether with Mario Lemieux or Martin Brodeur.

The last time there was an international tournament organized with the best players in the world was in 2016 during the World Cup of Hockey, and at that time, Canada had four Quebecers on its team, and not just any.

Claude Giroux, Patrice Bergeron, Marc-Édouard Vlasic, and Corey Crawford were on the team.

Let’s also add that on the North America team, composed of the best players under 23, Jonathan Drouin was featured.

If we go even further back, during the 2010 Olympic Games, Canada had six Quebec players in its lineup, including all three goaltenders.

Martin Brodeur, Marc-André Fleury, Roberto Luongo, Patrice Bergeron, Stéphane Robidas, and Martin St-Louis.

In short, times have really changed since then, and that’s really unfortunate.

This season in the NHL, the two best Quebec scorers rank 23rd and 24th among the top Canadian scorers.

It’s Jonathan Marchessault and Pierre-Luc Dubois who occupy those spots with 44 points each.

Jonathan Huberdeau follows not too far behind in 32nd place with his 41 points.

In short, this again shows how far Quebecers are lagging behind these days, which explains why there were none last night on the ice for the match of the century.

For some fans, it is clear that it must be difficult to identify with a Canadian team that has only one Quebec player, who isn’t even playing.


In a Nutshell

– Clearly.

– Kyle Okposo loved what he saw last night.

– Good point.

– Too bad.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!
More Content