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Sunday Scramble: The theft of the Nordiques, Flames keep losing, and more NHL notes
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Photo credit: © Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
Michael Menzies
Oct 26, 2025, 13:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 26, 2025, 12:54 EDT
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Since we’re so close to Halloween, do you remember the internet phrase going around a few years ago? My culture is not your costume. 
Looking back at this week in hockey, you’d have thought we took a time travel machine back to the old days of the Adams Division. The Colorado Avalanche donning the fleur-de-lis Quebec Nordiques sweaters, and the Carolina Hurricanes wearing the Hartford Whaler white and green. 
I won’t mince words here — I hate it. 
The Avalanche announced the dates they’ll go full Nordique this year, no longer using the modified reverse retro mix of Nordique crest but with Avs colours, oh no, going full unadulterated theft of the uniform. 
Meanwhile, the Carolina Hurricanes — bereft of good-looking sweaters themselves — have habitually gone full Whaler green once or twice a year, pulling on nostalgia heartstrings with the looks of two of hockey’s greatest uniforms. 
In fact, on the Avalanche broadcast scorebug, they labelled the teams as QUE-HFD, confusing the audience under seven years old. 
And the jerseys are great! This is not a criticism of arguably the best-designed jerseys in all of sports — it’s about a cynical cash grab from these two organizations focused purely on making money.  
Let’s stitch MacKinnon on the back of this Nordique sweater and sell a million of them. It’s sick. 
Now you might say that my overreaction is overblown. It’s about having fun, Michael, over the course of a long, monotonous 82-game season. What’s the harm in wearing cool jerseys every once in a while? It’s harmless. 
I don’t care, and fun is overrated. 
I can only put myself in the shoes of a Quebec Nordiques fan, and this is how I’d feel:
Isn’t it enough that our franchise was taken from us after a long, hard rebuild through the early 1990s, and literally won the Stanley Cup the very season after they moved out of Quebec City? 
Isn’t it enough knowing that the National Hockey League teases us every few years, knowing full well we’ll never get our team again because of the economic, cultural, and linguistic differences that exist in our city? 
Isn’t it enough that one of the greatest prospects of all-time Eric Lindros shunned and embarrassed us at the 1991 NHL Draft, refusing to wear our jersey and ever come to our team? 
Isn’t it enough that we dealt with poor management and ownership from O’Keefe’s Brewing Company that led to our departure? 
Isn’t it enough that we hated the Habs, produced perhaps the greatest rivalry of the 1980s, and now after 30 years, are given this stupid reminder of the team we lost, a theft of our beautiful jersey, our Francophone pride, our unique place in the game, all so the Colorado Avalanche who reside in Denver can make more money? 
I’ve read some opinions from Nordiques fans that have had their bitter feelings tempered and don’t mind it. I’ve seen a lot of general hockey fans who hate the idea of it, too. 
It feels wrong. I can live with a modified colour scheme that leaves the logo alone.
But a full-on theft of colour, logo, everything? Criminal. 
If the Colorado Avalanche were so interested in a 30th anniversary “homage” recognizing their roots and all that corporate buzzword nonsense, they’d have retired the four Nordiques numbers: 3 (J.C. Tremblay), 8 (Marc Tardif), 16 (Michel Goulet), and 21 (Peter Stastny). 
Will Makar wear Tardif on the back of his sweater?
But that would be silly, having jersey numbers retired for players who didn’t play in that city. That exactly is my point, the Avalanche, just like the Hurricanes, wants it both ways. 
And by the way, for the jersey retirement idea being so silly, that did happen. Dale Hawerchuk had his number retired by the Phoenix Coyotes in 2007. 
Bizarre jersey retirements are preferable compared to new costumes for modern teams to soak money from. That at least honours great players for their franchise, which can be forgotten once a team relocates. 
The Avalanche will costume these uniforms six more times, including when they host the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 29. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Habs didn’t want the Nordiques uniform at the Bell Centre to prevent any further resentments and keep the flames of the Good Friday Massacre far at bay.  
Maybe my hang-up is that the Edmonton Oilers have faced similar economic challenges over their history, and were it not for major efforts in the final hour by Cal Nichols and the Oilers Investor Group, they could’ve lost the team to Houston.
Also, it was 30 years ago. It could be time to say c’est la vie. I wouldn’t, though.

For the aesthetically minded

What this jersey scenario did showcase is how dull modern hockey jersey culture is as a whole. 
For example, rarely do we see two teams play with their colour jerseys. It is universally colour vs. white. Or more often than not, black vs white. 
The fascination of black as the default jersey colour of the past 20-25 years is such a lifeless choice. There are good ones, don’t get me wrong. The Los Angeles Kings’ black “Chevy” jerseys are terrific. But by and large, there is a lot of dull colour. 
The Nordiques blue vs the Whaler green. Beautiful. 
I’d fully endorse the NHL encouraging more colour-vs-colour jersey matchups in their games. Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News even tweeted this was a possibility in the new CBA back in February, but I haven’t seen any new reporting since.  
Plus, it is my long-standing contention that the home team should wear white. Hockey Night in Canada, the once proud institution, suggested this idea in 1970, and it stuck until 2003-04. 
The reasoning for the change to the current way of white as away jerseys was consistency and the rise of alternate jerseys. 
But as a fan, wouldn’t it be far more interesting to see 31 other colour/dark jerseys come into your barn? To me, that brings life and style to the forefront consistently, as opposed to always seeing your home team’s dark jersey and always seeing white in some fashion. 
Now, a white-out is actually feasible. It is hilarious that the Winnipeg Jets have continued the tradition of the playoff white-out, as their team is NOT WEARING WHITE. The fans are wearing the same colour as the team they are rooting against. Silliness. Switch it back. 
Additionally, I understand that white needs to be involved as a major colour for jerseys because colour vs. colour all the time can lead to confusion with teams having the same dark colour sweater. 
But the ice is white as well. Teams are consistently playing in uniforms the same colour as the surface, which does not allow for as much aesthetic pop. 
For example, the Winter Classic images of the Toronto Maple Leafs vs the Detroit Red Wings in 2014 are evidence alone that we are dismissing opportunities for more beauty in the game. These things don’t have to be a one-off. 
So there, I don’t hate all fun.

The Stone Infirmary

Mark Stone on LTIR? You mean that Mark Stone? Mark Stone from the Vegas Golden Knights? On Long-Term-Injured-Reserved? Nooo. Really? Mark Stone? I don’t believe it. You’re kidding me, right? Mark Stone. You’re telling me that Mark Stone is on LTIR?!
(I wrote Mark Stone so many times that the words have no meaning.) 
In all seriousness, Stone was off to a fantastic start with 13 points in six games, but cannot sustain health for any prolonged period of time. This injury doesn’t even help Vegas pull LTIR shenanigans. 
You have to wonder with Stone how much more his body can take. I don’t doubt his injuries. For a 33-year-old, it seems the man is grizzled beyond his 712 games. It’s a blow for the VGK, but they are used to playing without him. 
Listed as week-to-week, Stone must miss a minimum of 10 games and 24 days.

Notes:

  • Calgary losing streak counter: eight games. Sources are suggesting that a parade may occur after Friday night’s game, where the team scored a whole three goals! And no, it’s not relevant to bring up that the Flames’ lone win this year against the Oilers. They’d be winless…classic Oilers.
  • Nikita Kucherov scored his 1000th (and 1001st) point on Saturday, as the struggling Tampa Bay Lightning got a much-needed victory versus the Anaheim Ducks. Kucherov achieved the feat in 809 games, the third fastest for active players, only behind Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. He’s the 6th Russian to ever do it, putting his name beside the likes of Ovechkin, Malkin, Federov, Mogilny, and Kovalev. Simply put, he’s one of the best Russian hockey players of all time.
  • Where does Patrik Laine’s career go from here? The 27-year-old is set to miss three to four months after a core muscle injury, and you have to wonder if he will ever be the guy who can be a reliable presence on an NHL team. From the physical side to the mental health struggles, Laine has gone through the ringer. It’s safe to say his days of commanding $8.7 million annually are done. But man, is he ever skilled. Laine can shoot the puck. After his sophomore season tallying up 44 tucks, I thought we were about to witness the next Ovechkin-esque goalscorer in the NHL. Now, playing 44 games in a season is a challenge of its own.
  • Alex Ovechkin played his 1500th game with the Washington Capitals on Saturday. He’s the 24th NHLer to ever play that many games and the eighth to play that many with the same franchise. The others? Gordie Howe, Patrick Marleau, Nicklas Lidstrom, Alex Delvecchio, Shane Doan, Ray Bourque, and Steve Yzerman.
  • How much money is Logan Cooley going to cost the Utah Mammoth? A first-period natural hat-trick vs the St. Louis Blues, plus a two-goal period against the Minnesota Wild, and Cooley has seven of his 10 points in the last two games. By the way, the Mammoth are 7-2. After a long rebuild through the Coyotes, the Mammoth are starting to reap the rewards.

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