Sports
Quebec City lost its NHL team 30 years ago. Is the PWHL how pro hockey makes its return?
QUEBEC CITY — Tucked away at the event level inside the Videotron Centre is 20,000 square feet of empty space.
It’s mostly used for storage, and sometimes catering. But the space, according to venue staff, has been set aside with the hope of someday turning it into a state-of-the-art locker room for the return of the Quebec Nordiques.
It’s been almost 30 years since the NHL left Quebec City. The Nordiques moved to Denver in May 1995, becoming the Colorado Avalanche. Various attempts to revive the franchise over the intervening decades have been unsuccessful.
“It was a tragedy,” said Jocelyn Thibault, who played in the Nordiques’ final two seasons. “When you lose a professional team, it leaves a big hole in a city. It put a hole in a lot of people’s hearts.”
On Sunday, regular-season pro hockey returned to Quebec City for the first time in decades.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League brought its “Takeover Tour” of neutral-site games across North America to the city, with the Montreal Victoire playing the Ottawa Charge in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 18,000 fans — the second-largest announced attendance of the season.
“It was just unbelievable to see that crowd in front of us,” said Montreal forward Catherine Dubois, who grew up in Quebec City. “I had chills the whole time. It was very special.”
Une journée de rêve, tout simplement magique, pour Catherine Dubois, native de Québec 🥹
A magical homecoming for Catherine Dubois pic.twitter.com/XWhQxa8PEL
— Victoire de Montréal (@PWHL_Montreal) January 20, 2025
The PWHL, which is in only its second season, is already looking to add up to two teams as early as the 2025-26 season. With its facility, proximity to the league’s other Canadian franchises and fan support, Quebec City makes a strong case for expansion.
Is a women’s hockey team the most likely way to bring back pro hockey to the city?
It may not be an NHL city anymore, but Quebec City is still a hockey city.
On Friday night, two days before the PWHL game, fans filed into a local rink to watch the Cégep Limoilou Titans, the top-level women’s team in the city. The Titans are one of the top teams in the Quebec college hockey league — though Cégep is not college in the traditional sense, but rather a pre-university program that is unique to Quebec’s education system. With the return of starting goalie Marilou Grenier, who had a shutout for Team Canada in the gold medal game of the U18 women’s world championship earlier this month, there was reason to celebrate.
“We always have a lot of attendance around here,” said Titans assistant coach Laurence Beaulieu, who played one season in the now-defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League. “It’s not like this everywhere in the league, only (Quebec City). That’s what makes it a hockey town and incredible for professional hockey.”
One of the key arguments in favor of the PWHL expanding to Quebec City is the passionate fans who have been waiting not just for pro hockey but for any professional team to get behind. There hasn’t been a top-level professional franchise in the city since the Nordiques left, but that hasn’t stopped people from showing up for their local teams.
The Laval University football team set a record for attendance with over 20,000 fans at a game during the 2024 season. The Quebec Capitales baseball team had the second-best average attendance in the Frontier League last season. The Quebec Remparts, who play in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, have the best attendance across Canadian junior hockey with more than 9,000 fans each game despite the team’s current rebuild.
“Whatever sporting events there are in our city, fans are always present,” said Tommy Castonguay, the vice president of hockey operations for the Remparts. “The community is really supportive of sports and they’re behind their teams.”
Fan support — along with ticket sales — is just one of the many areas PWHL executives will examine when considering where to potentially add its next two franchises. The top priority, according to Amy Scheer, the league’s senior vice president of business operations, is the venue.
Quebec City checks that box, too.
The Videotron Centre opened in 2015, and was built in a very public attempt to lure the NHL back to the city. It seats just over 18,000 for hockey. And despite largely being a junior hockey rink – home to the Remparts – it is a truly professional hockey facility with a large home locker room and four big additional locker rooms, which can be made into eight smaller ones when more teams come to town, as they do during the historic Quebec International Pee-Wee Tournament. There are family and team lounges, workout and training facilities and office space for staff.
🔥@quebec_remparts pic.twitter.com/0RGY0pbRWa
— Victoire de Montréal (@PWHL_Montreal) January 19, 2025
“We built it with all the facilities for NHL hockey,” said Martin Tremblay, the CEO of Quebecor Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Remparts. “It’s why the Remparts are so well treated, and it would be the same thing for a PWHL team. They would have the same access to all these facilities too.”
The Videotron Centre is a public arena, owned by Quebec City, but is managed by Quebecor. A Quebec City PWHL team would likely still be owned by Mark Walter, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers who owns the PWHL and its six existing franchises, but could be operated locally in partnership with the team at Quebecor — or at least supported by the venue staff.
Should the city get a team, Tremblay said they could build a new locker room, offices and more treatment rooms for the team with some of the space that’s been earmarked for the Nordiques. And while some concerts and other events are held at the venue, there should be more than enough dates to give a PWHL team 15 home games. There’s also the Pavilion Guy-Lafleur only a few hundred metres away as a secondary practice rink option.
“We have the space, we have our team to help,” he said. “So I think all the ingredients are there.”
The league will also look at the youth hockey landscape and how the PWHL can affect the community.
Girls hockey registration in the province has increased by almost two thousand over the last three years. In 2023-24, nearly 8,000 girls registered to play hockey in Quebec, according to Hockey Canada, which is fourth among provinces in the country, behind Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. That’s up from around 6,000 in 2021-22.
Locally, a lot of girls still play against boys, and the Cégep Titans team is the only Division 1 girls hockey team in the city, which has long led to many top players leaving the city to play in Montreal or at private schools in the U.S.
“A lot of girls just stop playing because they don’t want to move away,” said Daphné Morin, another goalie for the Titans. “I think if there was a pro team here, a lot of girls would continue to play hockey. It would give us something to look forward to in our own city.”
Quebec City is also geographically close to the PWHL’s current footprint with teams in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, Boston and Minnesota. The league’s collective bargaining agreement mandates teams fly to games more than six hours or 400 miles away.
That means Montreal, Ottawa and perhaps Boston — the Tsongas Center is within the CBA limit, but their primary venue could change if attendance doesn’t improve — could all take bus trips. That’s compared to other Canadian expansion candidates such as Vancouver or Edmonton, which would necessitate air travel for all six current franchises.
There is a school of thought that a team in Quebec City could siphon support away from the league’s successful Montreal franchise. However, having a team in Quebec City could also reignite one of the most intense rivalries in the sport.
“Growing up in Montreal, we hated the Nordiques,” said Thibault. “The rivalry was so alive. I think having an NHL or PWHL team in Quebec City would just help both franchises.”
Not to mention, a team in Quebec City would likely draw more fans from the regions surrounding the city — even from neighboring Maine or New Brunswick — that are much further from Montreal. Of course, the PWHL will look further into the ticket sales from Sunday’s game and see where people came from — did they come from Montreal or Ottawa? How many were from the local area? — to see how sustainable the support for a team might be, and if it would affect its other franchises.
Marie-Philip Poulin, arguably the greatest women’s hockey player and captain of the Montreal Victoire, grew up 50 miles outside of Quebec City. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
All that said, some of the challenges the Nordiques faced are now question marks for the PWHL.
With a population of around 560,000 — 850,000 if we include the metropolitan area — Quebec City is a smaller market compared to other candidates for PWHL expansion, such as Detroit with around 630,000 in the city and 4.3 million in the metro area.
Quebec City was the smallest market in the NHL, and the second smallest major-league city behind only Green Bay, Wisc., home of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. And when the NHL eventually expands again, it’s more likely to look to Atlanta and Houston, massive television markets, over reviving the Nordiques.
There was also a limited corporate base in the region at the time the Nordiques existed, and despite fan support at the old Colisée, the franchise was financially ailing before it ultimately decamped to Denver. The local economy is more diverse now than it was then, with major insurance companies (such as Desjardins and Beneva) based in the metro area and a growing information and communication technologies industry.
“We’re not the same city that we were 30 years ago,” said Tremblay. “At that time we were a civil servant city. Now we have insurance companies, (tech) companies. We have big head offices in Quebec City and with young professionals.
“The reasons why (the Nordiques) left don’t exist anymore in my mind.”
Still, Quebec City will need to compete with major North American markets also interested in PWHL expansion. According to Scheer, the league will examine more than 20 proposals from interested parties. Previous stops on the league’s barnstorming tour included a sellout in Vancouver (19,038), and a U.S. attendance record in Denver (14,018). Detroit, St. Louis and Pittsburgh are other strong candidates.
“We’ve been to many markets that have supported us, have been there for us, and there’s a lot of cities that want us there,” said Montreal goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens, who grew up outside Quebec City. “Obviously my heart supports Quebec City if they want a team.”
There’s also the practical challenge of the PWHL adding a team to a Francophone city. The league already has a team in the province of Quebec, but Montreal is a more diverse, bilingual city compared to the predominantly French-speaking Quebec City.
Desbiens said she didn’t think the language would be a major barrier and that any issues English-speaking Nordiques players had were “a different reality.”
“That was a long time ago,” she said. “Kids nowadays learn English way faster than what we did. People are so welcoming (here), and I know the population would go above and beyond to make everybody feel welcome … So that’s not a worry of mine.”
The league understanding the culture, language and Quebec identity would be critical to a team’s success. And the PWHL would likely need some Francophone stars to market to local fans. The best women’s hockey player in the world, Marie-Philip Poulin, grew up around 50 miles outside of Quebec City, but she already captains the Montreal Victoire. Desbiens plays for the Victoire as well.
GO DEEPER
Fifteen years after first ‘golden goal,’ Marie-Philip Poulin returns to the place her legend began
Would they be willing to leave for their hometown team?
It’s also fair to wonder whether fans’ desire to bring back the Nordiques would equate to support for a PWHL franchise. While many locals say the “dream” is still an NHL franchise, they’re also resigned to the fact that a return is unlikely.
The PWHL, however, feels like a much more realistic dream.
Even with a rival team (Montreal) in town, fans packed the Videotron Centre on Sunday with an announced sellout of 18,259. Poulin, Desbiens and Dubois — who scored her second goal of the season in the first period — were given loud ovations during player introductions and nearly every time they touched the puck.
“This city lost their NHL franchise and they’ve supported their QMJHL team (better) than anywhere in the nation,” said Thibault. “I don’t see why they wouldn’t support their PWHL team.”
(Illustration: Will Tulos / The Athletic. Photos: Michael Chisholm, Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
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The World Cup group stage can get complicated quickly.
With 48 teams participating for the first time ever, FIFA instituted new tiebreaker rules to determine the top two in each group along with the eight highest third-place finishers.
Below, FOX Sports Research has broken down what each team needs to advance, what results would send them through, and which scenarios could leave their fate hanging in the balance.
Here’s where every group stands heading into the next round of matches, and the simple scenarios for them to advance.
Note: Below scenarios are through all games played on June 25. Additionally, three points is now the minimum required for teams to advance as one of the eight third-place teams.
GROUP A SCENARIOS
- Mexico won the group and will face a third-place team from either Group C or E in the Round of 32 in Mexico City on June 30.
- South Africa finished as runner-up in the group, and will play Canada on June 28 in Los Angeles.
- South Korea finished third, and currently ranks eighth among the third-place teams.
- Czechia cannot advance to the knockout stage.
Mexico celebrates after securing the top spot in Group in the win vs. South Korea.
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GROUP B SCENARIOS
- Switzerland won the group and will play a third-place team from either Group G or J in the Round of 32 in Vancouver on July 2.
- Canada finished as runner-up in the group and will play South Africa on June 28 in Los Angeles.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina finished third, and will play USA in the Round of 32 on July 1 in Santa Clara.
- Qatar cannot advance to the knockout stage.
GROUP C SCENARIOS
- Brazil won the group and will play Japan on June 29 in Houston.
- Morocco finished as runner-up of the group and will play the Netherlands on June 29 in Monterrey.
- Scotland finished in third, and currently ranks tenth among third-place teams.
- Haiti cannot advance to the knockout stage.
GROUP D SCENARIOS
- USA won the group, and will play Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 on July 1 in Santa Clara.
- Australia finished as runner-up of the group and will play Egypt on July 3 in Arlington.
- Paraguay finished in third, and will play Germany on June 29 in Foxborough.
- Türkiye cannot advance to the knockout stage.
Folarin Balogoun of the U.S.
GROUP E SCENARIOS
- Germany won the group and will play Paraguay on June 29 in Foxborough.
- Ivory Coast finished as runner-up of the group and will play Norway on June 30 in Arlington.
- Ecuador finished in third, and clinched a spot as a third-place team.
- Curaçao cannot advance to the knockout stage.
GROUP F SCENARIOS
- Netherlands won the group and will play Morocco on June 29 in Monterrey.
- Japan finished as runner-up of the group and will play Brazil on June 29 in Houson.
- Sweden finished third, and will play France on June 30 in East Rutherford.
- Tunisia cannot advance to the knockout stage.
GROUP G SCENARIOS
- Belgium won the group and will play a third-place team from Group A, I, or J on July 1 in Seattle.
- Egypt finished as runner-up of the group and will play Australia on July 3 in Arlington.
- Iran finished in third and currently ranks sixth among the third-place teams.
- New Zealand cannot advance to the knockout stage.
GROUP H SCENARIOS
- Spain won the group and will play the runner-up of Group J on July 2 in Los Angeles.
- Cape Verde finished as runner-up of the group and will play Argentina on July 3 in Miami.
- Uruguay cannot advance to the knockout stage.
- Saudi Arabia cannot advance to the knockout stage.
GROUP I SCENARIOS
- France won the group and will play Sweden on June 30 in East Rutherford.
- Norway finished as runner-up of the group and will play Ivory Coast on June 30 in Arlington.
- Senegal finished in third, and clinched a spot as a third-place team.
- Iraq cannot advance to the knockout stage.
GROUP J SCENARIOS
- Argentina won the group and will face Cape Verde on July 3 in Miami.
- Austria will advance with a win or draw; in a draw, the runner-up will be decided by tiebreakers.
- Algeria will advance with a win or draw; in a draw, the runner-up will be decided by tiebreakers.
- Jordan cannot advance to the knockout stage.
Lionel Messi of Argentina.
GROUP K SCENARIOS
- Colombia has advanced.
- Colombia will win the group with a win or draw.
- Portugal will advance with a win or draw, and will win the group with a win.
- Uzbekistan can advance with a win, but it is not guaranteed.
GROUP L SCENARIOS
- England will advance with a win/draw.
- England will win the group with a win AND a Ghana draw/loss.
- Ghana will advance with a win/draw.
- Ghana will win the group with a win AND an England draw/loss.
- Panama cannot advance to the knockout stage.
SAN DIEGO — The home run that Roki Sasaki gave up to San Diego’s Ty France was more dramatic than the two walks he issued to open the inning. But it was the free passes that really hurt him.
In the Dodgers’ 7-1 loss to the Padres on Friday, Sasaki was out of the game before he could record an out in the fifth inning. He gave up only three hits but issued five walks, tying his season high, and hit a batter.
“I actually felt different than I ever felt before, mechanically,” Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okubo, noting that his lower body felt a little off. “So I need to go over it and see what was really happening.”
Sasaki successfully pitched around traffic for much of his outing, other than the three-run homer to France in the second inning. But the inefficiency sent his pitch count past 80 before he exited with runners on first and second in the fifth.
“I’m not going to have it every time out, so that’s something I have to improve,” Sasaki said. “And also the game plan. I was able to execute some of the pitches, but some of the pitches I couldn’t, so that’s something I have to go through before next start.”
Earlier this month, when Sasaki held the Angels scoreless through seven two-hit innings, it seemed as if he’d had a breakthrough. But in three starts since, including a seven-run dud against the Chicago White Sox two weeks ago, he has yet to pitch through the sixth inning.
“I am a little surprised, because there was such good momentum going on,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Hopefully we can get him back to throwing the way he did in May.”
The Padres’ Walker Buehler walks off after holding his old team to one run for 5-1/3 innings Friday at Petco Park.
(Derrick Tuskan / Ap Photo/derrick Tuskan)
Sasaki’s command issues Friday showed up almost immediately. After striking out Padres leadoff hitter Fernando Tatis Jr., Sasaki walked Samad Taylor on 10 pitches. But Sasaki bounced back by inducing a double play.
The next inning, there would be no such escape. Sasaki walked both Manny Machado, whom he also battled for 10 pitches, and Gavin Sheets to open the frame. Then Xander Bogaerts’ sharp line drive to center field found leather.
France’s long fly ball to left field, however, found the seats.
Sasaki’s only clean inning, the third, was made possible by catcher Dalton Rushing’s successful challenge of a called ball four against Tatís, flipping a walk into a strikeout.
“I know that there’s confidence in there,” Roberts said. “But when you feel good and you don’t feel good mechanically and can’t execute pitches, then the results are walks, and 1-2 [count] homers, and things like that. But I do think that we can kind of tackle the mechanical things that he’s probably looking for right now.”
The Padres piled on in the eighth inning against reliever Jonathan Hernandez, as the sold-out crowd chanted “Beat L.A.!”
Mookie Betts hit a home run off former teammate Walker Buehler for his second homer in as many games. Betts seems to have come out of his offensive funk, entering Friday with a 1.061 on-base-plus-slugging percentage over the previous 11 games.
Buehler earned the win, delivering five strikeouts in 5⅓ innings.
“[Buehler] is reinventing himself,” Roberts said. “He’s throwing the kitchen sink at you. Cutter, slider, changeup, two-seamers. He doesn’t just try to bully you, and he’s finding ways to just get guys out. So yeah, he’s gonna still go up there and compete.”
The Dodgers went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position and squandered a bases-loaded opportunity with one out in the sixth inning after chasing Buehler. Max Muncy popped out and Kyle Tucker, back in the lineup after exiting Monday’s game because of back spasms, flied out.
The Dodgers have built such a big lead in the division that the loss barely made a dent. The Padres, in second place, trail by eight games.
Caitlin Clark hit in throat during WNBA loose-ball scramble, sparking backlash and game suspension
WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark was hit in the throat during a loose-ball scramble, sparking outrage and a one-game suspension for Alyssa Thomas. Fox News’ Garrett Tenney reports on the ‘absolutely unacceptable’ incident and the coach’s reaction. Political analyst Gianno Caldwell discusses Clark’s immense impact on WNBA viewership, including a $2.2 billion deal, and the role of gender and race in the controversy.
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Phoenix Mercury All-Star Alyssa Thomas is the latest villain to Caitlin Clark fans after punching Clark in the throat during a game on Wednesday night.
The referees missed the punch in real time, but fans and the league office did not.
A viral clip of the punch in slow motion spread across social media, pouring gasoline on the ongoing culture war surrounding Clark’s physical treatment by opposing players, which has been a controversial issue dating back to Clark’s rookie season in 2024.
And Less than 24 hours after the incident, the WNBA slapped Thomas with a one-game suspension for what was deemed a “reckless” and “non-basketball act.”
Who is the woman behind the punch?
If Thomas wasn’t in the WNBA, she says she would go pro in combat sports
In a 2019 interview with Nike PLAYlist, Thomas answered what sport she would have gone pro in if she didn’t go pro in basketball.
“Either boxing or MMA,” Thomas said.
If Thomas never went pro in any sport, she said she would have gotten into dentistry.
“Since I was a kid, I loved going to the dentist. I just was fascinated with teeth and still am. I’m passionate about that whole process of cleaning,” according to a profile on WNBA.com.
The first time Thomas stepped on a basketball court, she threw a ‘hissy fit’
Thomas was signed up to try basketball for the first time at the age of five by her mother, Tina, per the WNBA.
Thomas said she “Threw myself all down the stairs, down the hallway,” while her mom said “She just threw an absolute hissy fit.”
WNBA SUSPENDS ALYSSA THOMAS FOR ‘RECKLESSLY’ HITTING CAITLIN CLARK IN THROAT DURING SCRAMBLE
Her parents didn’t let her win a popular board game
Thomas’ parents never took it easy on her when they played “Candyland” as she was growing up.
“We weren’t the parents that were just going to let you win,” Tina said, per the WNBA.
“In life, you have to fight, and how are you going to fight if you don’t teach your kids to fight? So if she fell over, ‘get up, you’re alright,’ and if she didn’t get up, you knew something was wrong.”
It was a parenting tactic also used by the father of New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter, who famously never let Jeter win in board games or card games when he was growing up, to instill harsh competitiveness at an early age.
Thomas added that her mom was especially hard on her and helped develop her toughness.
“By no means was it easy, and it’s still not easy,” Thomas said.
Thomas plays more physically because shoulder issues hinder her shooting ability
Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas scrambles to get up over Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark during a game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on June 24, 2026. The Phoenix Mercury defeated the Indiana Fever 111-109. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
Thomas currently plays basketball with torn labrums in both of her shoulders.
The injuries are so severe that she completely lacks the structural integrity to lift her arms and shoot a traditional, fluid jump shot. Instead, she is forced to use a rigid, one-handed pushing motion from her chest just to get the ball to the rim.
Because she cannot rely on outside shooting, Thomas adapted by leaning entirely into her physical frame. She drives directly into the teeth of opposing defenses, absorbing heavy contact in the paint to score closer to the basket.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark shown after falling in the lane while Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas watches the ball at Gainbridge Fieldhouse Indianapolis, Indiana on June 24, 2026. (Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
That brutal, driving style requires her to initiate intense physical collisions on nearly every single possession.
Despite the mechanical limitations and constant pain, the tactical shift worked. She transformed herself into a six-time All-Star, three-time First-Team All-WNBA, an Olympic gold medalist and the undisputed triple-double queen of the WNBA.
Thomas has been the center of immense criticism this week
The throat punch on Clark ignited a fierce wave of backlash.
Indiana Fever Head Coach Stephanie White led the charge, completely unloading on Thomas and the league’s officials during her postgame press conference.
“We have a generational talent and a WNBA superstar who had two cheap shots right there that weren’t called,” White said, pointing directly at Thomas’s actions. “Absolutely unacceptable.”
White argued that Thomas regularly crosses the line from playing physical defense into inflicting dangerous, non-basketball contact.
“It’s absolutely egregious and utterly disrespectful,” White continued to fume to reporters. “The fist in the throat is crazy. It’s crazy. It’s dangerous.”
On Thursday, Fever President Kelly Krauskopf released a statement praising the decision to suspend Thomas.
“Player safety should be paramount in our league. We appreciate the WNBA’s review of last night’s incident and the action taken. Right now our focus is on Caitlin and our entire team as we prepare for Saturday,” Krauskopf wrote.
Former Minnesota Vikings captain and prominent conservative activist Jack Brewer said the punch would be considered a “hate crime” if the roles were reversed.
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“This would be considered a hate crime if it were the other way around,” Brewer told Fox News Digital.
Other critics have expressed their own outrage on social media.
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