Inice hockey, theGood Friday Massacre (French:la bataille du Vendredi saint)^[1][2] was a second-round playoff match-up during the1984 Stanley Cup playoffs. The game occurred onGood Friday, April 20, 1984, inMontreal, Quebec, Canada, between theQuebec Nordiques and theMontreal Canadiens. It is notable less for its series-ending finish than its epic brawl between the players, which spanned multiple periods and resulted in 11 ejections and 252 penalty minutes.^[3] It was the most infamous episode of theBattle of Quebec.

The Montreal Canadiens, five years removed from their dynasty of the 1970s, had regressed in the five years since their then-most-recent championship in 1979. After being eliminated in the second round of the 1980 playoffs by theMinnesota North Stars, the Canadiens did not win another playoff series for the next three years. In 1981, the Canadiens suffered an embarrassing three-game sweep against theEdmonton Oilers to become the first NHL team to lose a playoff series to a formerWorld Hockey Association team. The next year their new provincial rivals from the WHA stunned the Canadiens by winning the fifth and deciding game in the first playoff series between the two provincial rivals, while 1983 brought another first round sweep for Montreal at the hands of theBuffalo Sabres.

The Quebec Nordiques meanwhile had steadily improved in the five years since joining the NHL as part of theNHL–WHA merger. Quebec reached the playoffs in only their second NHL season and after that did not post a losing season until 1987. Although they narrowly failed to get past the powerfulPhiladelphia Flyers in their first NHL playoff series, the following year saw the aforementioned upset against Montreal followed by another upset against theBoston Bruins. After being swept by theNew York Islanders who were then in the middle of their own championship dynasty, the Nordiques met the Bruins once again the following year, this time losing 3–1 in the first round.

The Canadiens regressed further in 1984, playing around .500 hockey^{[further explanation needed]} for most of the season. Replacing coachBob Berry with the defensively-mindedJacques Lemaire did not initially improve the club's fortunes, and the team ended up losing its last six regular season games to finish with its first losing record in the expansion era. However, under the relatively easy playoff format of the time it was still good enough to qualify since the Canadiens finished 11 points ahead of the last placeHartford Whalers. Quebec meanwhile finished with its best NHL record to that point in its history, although its 94 points was still only good enough for third place behind the Bruins and Sabres. However, both Quebec teams stunned their first round opposition with three game sweeps, setting up an unexpected rematch between them for the second round.

The provincial rivals split the first two games in Quebec as well as the next two in Montreal. The Canadiens shut out the Nordiques 4–0 at theColisée de Québec to give themselves the chance to eliminate the Nordiques at the Forum.

After a number offights, abench-clearing brawl broke out as the siren sounded to end the second period.^[4] Amongst the fourteen altercations at the end of the second period^[5] were the Canadiens'Mario Tremblay smashing the nose of the Nordiques'Peter Stastny, and Nordiques'Louis Sleigher knocking Canadiens'Jean Hamel unconscious by sucker-punching him in the eye.^[3]Bruce Hood, the referee for the game, sent the teams off the ice without officially ending the second period by assigning penalties for the brawl.

After the intermission, with all players from both teams on the ice to warm up for the third period, a second brawl broke out. The public address announcer started reading the penalty summary as the players warmed up, and as players heard the confirmation that they were to be ejected from the game anyway, some felt they "might as well take some guys with (them)" (perLarry Robinson), as "they had nothing to lose" (perGuy Carbonneau).^[3] In particular, the Canadiens players went after the Nordiques' Louis Sleigher, furious with him for the damage he had inflicted on Jean Hamel in the original brawl.^[3] The second brawl included a fight between brothersDale Hunter (Nordiques) andMark Hunter (Canadiens).^[3]

The officials had to be summoned to the ice to restore order; Bruce Hood was roundly criticized for his handling of the situation.^[6] Hood had failed to "complete" the second period by informing the time keeper, the PA announcer, and the head coaches as to what penalties had been assigned, including which players (including Sleigher) had been ejected from the game and should not return to the ice for the third period.^[6] Hood retired after the playoffs that year, doing so amidst speculation that his retirement occurred at the behest of theNHL.^[7]

A total of 252 penalty minutes were incurred and 11 players were (belatedly) ejected.^[3] Hamel managed to return for training camp in the autumn of 1984, but sustained another eye injury in Montreal's October 4 pre-season game, prompting him to retire.^[8][9][10]

When the brawl took place, the Canadiens were trailing 1–0. After surrendering one more goal to Quebec just over two minutes into the third period, Montreal scored five consecutive goals, eventually defeating the Nordiques 5–3, thereby winning the series 4 games to 2.^[3] However, the Canadiens were defeated in thePrince of Wales Conference finals by theNew York Islanders in six games.

Number in parentheses represents the player's total in goals or assists to that point of the playoffs

It was broadcast onCBC Television andTélévision de Radio-Canada in Canada, and on theUSA Network in the United States.

External videos
1984 Battle of Quebec onYouTube

• Lemieux, Josie (2003),A good ol' hockey fight relived, Sports Central, archived from the original on March 16, 2009, retrievedApril 22, 2007
• Boxscore (p. 10)

• 1984 Stanley Cup
• Stanley Cup playoff games
• Montreal Canadiens games
• Quebec Nordiques games
• National Hockey League brawls
• April 1984 sports events in Canada
• 1984 in Montreal
• Nicknamed sporting events
• 1984 in sports in Quebec

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• CS1: unfit URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing French-language text
• Wikipedia articles needing clarification from May 2025