LA Kings Leave Quebec City With Fond Memories And A Community Grateful For The Visit

Midway through the Los Angeles Kings’ much-anticipated stay in historic Quebec City the plan was for a group of players to visit a local food bank.

Local organizers, perhaps not wanting to overstep bounds, suggested players could perhaps come and pose for some pictures.

“We were like, ‘no, no, no, we’re not doing a picture, our guys are going there they’re going to want to work,” Kings President Luc Robitaille said. “It was kind of interesting.”

And so work they did.

Around 2 PM on a sunny Friday afternoon, eight LA Kings players were greeted by dozens of fans and well-wishers at an industrial complex that is home to the La Bouchee Genereux, a vital cog in the local food donation machinery.

The players were whisked by a diminutive whirling dervish of a figure, Marie-Pier Gravel, down several steep flights of stairs into the basement of the building out of sight of fans and local media who had gathered to cover the event.

Gravel has been working helping the less fortunate since she was a child as her father is the manager of the food bank that has been a fixture in the community since 1996. She quickly barked out orders to the eight players.

Anze Kopitar and Vladislav Gavrikov were put to work emptying large nylon bags of sweet corn into a bin.

Tanner Jeannot, Dave Rittich and Mikey Anderson were tasked with putting various foodstuffs in boxes for pickup.

Upstairs, Joel Edmundson found himself in the back of a large cube truck passing box after box of donated foodstuffs from grapes to cookies to tomatoes to teammates including Phil Danault and Adrian Kempe.

When that truck was emptied another took its place and the process was repeated.

Boxes of perishable foods that needed refrigeration were handed from player to player in a kind of fire brigade line into a massive cooler unit on the main floor while other goods were taken back down the steep stairs to shelves in the basement.

By the end of it when the players posed for pictures with organizers they were drenched in sweat.

“It’s nice to get out in the community, help out with whatever they need,” Edmundson said. “At the food bank had us doing some heavy lifting. So I’m glad we could help them out there. Yeah, they had us sweating yesterday. We all enjoyed it. We were talking on the bus after it’s a great showing, a bunch of fans came out and we got some good work done.”

It was an hour out of the lives of these players’ lives but on some levels it helped distill the complex yet gratifying nature of this the Kings’ visit.

Willaim Trudel is a former police investigator turned entrepreneur who owns the property that is home to La Bouchee Genereux.

Every week more than 1,000 families come to the complex, which pays not rent to Trudel, to pick up foodstuffs to help get them through the week.

“It change their lives a lot because a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them are refugees that they came here in Canada a few weeks or a few months ago with kids, with babies, and they have almost nothing,” Trudel said. “So, it’s going to help for a few weeks, few months and then they will be able to reintegrate into our society, to find work and to make sure their life will continue in Canada in a good direction. For a few months when they are coming from refugee camps it’s extremely difficult for them.”

The ripple effect of the Kings’ visit may well be felt for months, perhaps years.

“I’m really happy because it’s going to bring a lot of visibility about this project here and as an entrepreneur in Quebec City, it’s going to help me a lot to talk with other entrepreneur and to talk with all the media and all the politicians to make sure that we will be able to bring more financial help for our neighbor here in Quebec City,” Trudel said. “So the fact the Los Angeles Kings are here today it brings a lot of visibility that’s going to help us to raise money.”

Trudel had been at the nearby Videotron Centre the night before when the Kings defeated the Boston Bruins 4-1 in the first of two preseason games the team would play before preparing for their 2024-25 season opener in Buffalo on Thursday.

He joked that he was not surprised that the Kings were such diligent workers.

“Oh yeah, it’s proper work,” he said. “Yesterday evening I was at the Videotron Centre and of course I saw and I realized that the Los Angeles Kings are stronger than the Boston Bruins. So we are so happy to get the Los Angeles Kings today because the boxes are moving very fast.”

This isn’t the first time the Kings have taken off to a different locale to play preseason games.

For years the Kings made a regular pilgrimage to Vegas as part of their home preseason slate. When the Golden Knights came into the league they switched it up and went to Utah.

In the past they’ve hosted games in Kansas City.

But there is no doubt this trip is different.

More than four million tourists visit Quebec City annually.

They are drawn, in large part, from the beauty and history that seems to ooze out of every cobbled street and every boulangerie or patisserie.

But for the inhabitants of the Francophone province truly courses through their veins, is one thing – hockey.

It is the lifeblood of the province, something that, along with the language and culture, binds the 8.2 million inhabitants.

At the team’s opening press conference at the impressive Videotron Centre, Danault, who grew up and played his major junior hockey not far from Quebec City, several times referenced hockey as religion in Quebec.

Even though there has always been a financial component to all of these kinds of trips – and not just for the Kings of course but every team that makes such appearances – Robitaille and Danault answered questioning about the issue when the Kings first arrived.

Both handled the questions with aplomb. As Robitaille noted, he knew the issue was a hot topic for local media. And both French-speaking members of the organization knew intimately that would be the case.

Danault, a native of Victoriaville, played professionally in Montreal, while Robitaille grew up in the Montreal area and played his major junior hockey in Hull, Quebec, across the Ottawa River from Ottawa which meant regular trips to Quebec City to play the local junior team, the Remparts.

Robitaille recalled being a young boy aged and their hockey coach asking them at the start of the season if they wanted to attend the world-famous pee-wee tournament in Quebec City, about a two-hour drive away, or go to a tournament in Jonquiere, Quebec north of Quebec City which would mean flying.

It was a no-brainer for the kids, most of whom had never been on a plane. Now, Robitaille joked that it seems crazy the team somehow decided not to go to Quebec City.

Still, when Robitaille was considering a trip to Quebec City he relied on his staff to make sure that the players would be able to balance preparing for the team’s final two preseason games before the start of the regular season, being able to enjoy each other’s company and the magic of the city while making a significant connection with the community.

“I know what hockey means here, to see those guys from the NHL,” Robitaille said. “I remember being a kid and that would have meant everything to me.”

There were, to say the least, a lot of moving parts to this trip.

Did it live up to Robitaille’s hopes and expectations?

“Actually I think it’s been better,” Robitaille said. “I think us coming here, giving back and doing stuff, I think the whole scenario at the hotel and walking around I just think it’s special. Some of these guys are young they might not know but I know when I retired you think back, well, that was pretty cool remember we did that?”

Not long after the players departed the food bank a local talk radio show sang the praises of the Kings’ players and the organization for their work in the community.

Officials at Videotron Centre indicated that ticket sales for the second pre-season game against Florida had seen an uptick after some of the positive stories circulating about the Kings and their forays into the community. Both games were close to sellouts.

Anderson, for one, was pleased to have been part of the food bank crew.

“It’s awesome, we didn’t know anything really about it but it’s awesome,” he said. “Obviously we’re very privileged to do what we do and have the life we have being able to do that and hear that we can help that many families even helping out the people that work there every day and make their job a little easier. It’s not much of our time to come and do it’s something that I think that guys actually enjoy and have a fun time doing it. I had no idea it would be that big of a difference but it’s nice. We go on the trip here to play hockey but also to try and help out with the community add whatever we can and help obviously it’s a great hockey city so it’s fun to be around here.”

Apart from the visit to the food bank, players also visited a local children’s hospital and there were hockey clinics with local boys and girls, both on the ice and at a local community center for ball hockey.

For some of the events the Kings called on some familiar faces and names whose enthusiasm speaks to the importance of the game and frankly the importance of connecting with the community.

Manon Rheaume is an icon in the world of hockey and a legend in supporting and growing the game, especially women’s hockey, at the grassroots level.

“I grew up a big Quebec Nordiques fan,” Rheaume said who is a member of the Kings’ hockey development staff.

She helped lead on-ice sessions with local boys and girls, a moment that brought into focus her own connection to the culture and history of the game in Quebec.

“When we were in school and everybody was talking about playing the Montreal Canadiens, the Quebec game, like for weeks and it was just that’s what we were doing in Quebec,” Rheaume said. “Now, to come back having the opportunity to be with the Kings and come back and give back to youth hockey for me it’s very special and I think it’s super important for the people in Quebec to see some NHL players. I think it’s very special for the people in Quebec to have a team, an NHL team, come here and be in the community.”

Rheaume was joined by Kings alums Stephane Fiset and Philippe Boucher, both of whom have remained connected to hockey in Quebec since their retirement from the NHL.

Longtime NHL’er Simon Gagne, who is in his third season with the Quebec Remparts, was also around for the week, with the Kings playing in his current arena.

Gagne started as an assistant to legendary head coach Patrick Roy, who has made the Remparts into a junior hockey force as coach and manager.

Then, after winning the Memorial Cup in his first year with the team, Gagne took over as GM while Roy has returned to the NHL as head coach of the New York Islanders.

“It’s like coming back home,” he explained. “When I stopped playing hockey I was not looking to stay in Philly or LA. Wife’s from here, family’s from here, friends are from here. So it was natural for us to come back here to Quebec hometown where I grew up.”

Gagne, who also played his junior hockey for the hometown Remparts, perhaps understands the impact of this visit by the Kings better than most having been part of the Kings’ first Stanley Cup win in 2012.

He understands the players’ willingness to bridge the gap between themselves and the fans who revere them.

“I think it’s really important. It shows that it’s not just a bunch of NHL’ers or an NHL team come down here for a week and take it easy and just take advantage of all we have here,” Gagne explained. “It’s not the case. I don’t want to go into politics but a lot of things happened, it is what it is, but at the end of the day the LA Kings came here, they did a great day with the community, hospital visit, playing some dek hockey, outside hockey with kids. It shows that they not only here to just come here and be out of here. It’s going to be great for the city and great for people to see and as a former L.A. King it’s fun.”

Perhaps there is no more fitting image to help put this trip in perspective than the final moments as the crowd rose as one to celebrate hometown boy Danault.

He responded in kind, raising his stick in tribute to the fans who had come.

After, he admitted it was shocking how quickly the moment had past.

“It seems like it was so far away and just like that we’re here and we’re just wrap it up so it went fly by,” Danault said. “It went really fast but it’s awesome very happy to be here.”