Montreal Hockey Fanatics has no direct affiliation to the Montreal Canadiens, NHL or NHLPA

MONTREAL HOCKEY FANATICS


Bettman and the NHL criticized for their handling of the Canadiens-Avalanche game


PUBLICATION
Elias Edmonson
November 28, 2025  (7:13 PM)
SHARE THIS STORY
FOLLOW US

Photo of Canadiens and Avalanche
Photo credit: NHL/HabsFanatics

The excellent Maxime Truman pointed out such an interesting point regarding the game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Colorado Avalanche.

We obviously recall that Martin St-Louis' squad has a meeting with that of Nathan MacKinnon and Jared Bednar tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m., and that's exactly the problem.
As Truman mentions in his most recent piece, the NHL indeed made an embarrassing mistake. The NHL completely botched things by scheduling the long-awaited game between the Montreal Canadiens and "the Quebec Nordiques", on a Saturday afternoon!

A strange decision by Gary Bettman and the NHL regarding this Saturday's game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Colorado Avalanche (in Quebec Nordiques colors)

Not only is it not great to make a team play two games in less than 24 hours (the game is in the afternoon), but on top of that, the time of the game shows that the league's executives absolutely do not understand the Quebec market.
"The NHL really missed something by scheduling this Canadiens-Avalanche game on a Saturday afternoon.

The Avalanche will wear their Nordiques jersey tomorrow for their game against the Habs.

We can all agree this is making noise in Quebec and will draw attention tomorrow.

However, the league should have thought to schedule this game at 7:00 p.m. Quebec time, and not at 3:00 p.m.

How do you kill a little buzz in Quebec?

The NHL dares to revive the history of the Nordiques - and the history of Quebec City - but it's not even capable of scheduling this game at an interesting hour for people in/from Quebec."

- Maxime Truman

Very well said!
To show how much of a mistake this is by the NHL (let's call it like it is), Truman explains that TVA Sports didn't even want to use its right of selection to broadcast this game. Wow.
Basically, every year, the bosses at TVA Sports can choose 22 national games that they will broadcast on their airwaves.
And they didn't even choose to broadcast tomorrow's game, precisely because it was oddly placed in the afternoon.
"Think about it: tomorrow's Nordiques-Canadiens game will be broadcast on RDS because TVA Sports decided it won't attract enough viewers." - Maxime Truman

Yes, it shows that the NHL messed up, again!
POLL
NOVEMBRE 28   |   786 ANSWERS
Bettman and the NHL criticized for their handling of the Canadiens-Avalanche game

Is it a mistake that the game is at 3:00 p.m. instead of the normal 7:00 p.m. ?


MONTREAL HOCKEY FANATICS
COPYRIGHT @2025 • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
TERMS OF SERVICE  ·  PRIVACY POLICY  ·  COOKIE POLICY
RSS FEED  ·  SITEMAP  ·  ROBOTS.TXT