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Thursday, October 7, 1999
Je me ne souviens pas?
Revenge of the Nords forgotten as Aubut enters Hall
Aubut is a hockey innovator and he led the merger of the old World Hockey Association with the NHL. He helped organize Rendez-Vous '87, a hugely successful celebration of international hockey.
The St. Hubert, Que., native also has, through his exhaustive fund-raising efforts, had a profound impact on amateur sport in his home province.
Public enemy No. 1
But this is the same guy who was public enemy No.1 in Quebec City. The man who agreed to sell the Quebec Nordiques to a Denver group in 1995 for $75 million US. When the Nords became the Colorado Avalanche, some of the NHL's most passionate fans were gutted.
Maurice Dumas, sports editor at Le Soleil, said there is no outcry in the capital of La Belle Province over Aubut's entry into the Hall this week, if only because so much water has passed under the bridge.
But if Aubut's induction had come a few years ago, it would have been a different story.
"There was a lot of resentment here," said Dumas, who covered the Nordiques for five seasons. "But it has been almost five years since the team was sold (and) Aubut really isn't in the limelight anymore."
Aubut also has since been lauded for speaking out in support of the remaining Canadian clubs north of the border, a theme he spoke on yesterday.
"We lost two, Quebec and Winnipeg, that's enough," Aubut said, insisting the losses in Quebec were too much for a small ownership group to absorb. "We can't lose more. Hockey belongs to Canadians. You even see big problems today in Montreal, the Yankees of hockey. Who would have said that five years ago? That's a sign of the exasperation."
Aubut said tax relief and a better NHL equalization plan would be a good start. And he scoffed at suggestions the country would be better off without NHL teams.
"(Government help) is not charity," he said. "Those businesses bring in a lot of money. If they aren't there ... hey, the government loses a fortune. But it's tough to explain to the people.
"The government has to step in. We are going to lose two or three teams in two years if nothing happens."
Dumas said that many hockey fans in Quebec still wonder, with some anger, how it is that other small-market Canadian teams have held on to their teams, even if just barely, while the Nordiques leadership sold out.
"I think Marcel, for a long period, made a big effort to keep the team (in Quebec)," Dumas said.
"But I think, at the end, he was willing to sell because the other owners wanted that."
Four others were inducted into the Hall yesterday: Former star goaltender Johnny Bower, who helped the Maple Leafs to four Stanley Cups during the 1960s; 1992 Olympic synchronized swim champion Sylvie Frechette; Toronto native John Hiller, who became of great relief pitcher during a 15-year career with the Detroit Tigers in the 1960s and '70s; and the late Bernie Faloney, a four-time Grey Cup-winning quarterback with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats who came to Canada in 1957 from the U.S. and stayed to become a proud Canadian sportsman and businessman. Faloney lost a year-long battle to cancer on June 14.
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