The Battle of Quebec extended to politics, in which the Canadiens and Nordiques became symbols for rival parties, and beer distribution, as the teams were both owned by competing breweries.

As part of the new league's raid on NHL talent, the team signed J. C. Tremblay, a Canadiens defenceman, to a five-year contract.

However, the Canadiens' owner, Molson Brewery, eventually capitulated after Canadian cities with WHA teams in the deal boycotted the brand.

The Nordiques hosted the rivalry for the first time on October 29, and upset the Canadiens 5–4; the Ottawa Citizen wrote that "The victory marked the end of a decades-old Quebec belief that Montreal was unbeatable.

Montreal won the fourth game 6–2; the contest featured a combined 251 penalty minutes, including 159 from one first-period altercation.

The game, and series, came to a quick end 22 seconds into the extra period when Quebec's Dale Hunter scored after a 2-on-1 odd-man rush to give the Nordiques the victory.

[14] Ten players were thrown out of the game between both brawls, but several were not immediately told of their ejections after the first one,[13] as the officials had not finished recording all of the penalties during the intermission.

[18] The teams did not meet in the 1986 playoffs, as the Nordiques lost to the Hartford Whalers in the first round, while the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup.

[19] The Nordiques won the first two games in the Montreal Forum, before the Canadiens evened the series with a pair of wins in Quebec City.

"[25] In 2010, La série Montréal-Québec, a TVA television series featuring games between amateur teams from the two cities, premiered.

The Canadiens were seen by some as reflective of those in favour of keeping the province as part of Canada, while the Nordiques were seen as a symbol of Quebec independence.

[30] The Nordiques gained a large francophone fan base in Quebec, and their uniforms contained the colours and crest from the province's flag.

[33] In May 1982, following the Canadiens' elimination from the NHL playoffs at the hands of the Nordiques the previous month, a 9.5 per cent decline in Quebec's beer consumption was recorded.

Molson was a leading sponsor of the broadcasts, and Nordiques president Marcel Aubut cited the agreement as an extension of the Molson–Carling O'Keefe rivalry.

[34][35] The teams also wound up on opposite sides of a dispute over the Trans-Border Agreement, which allowed the Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs to receive most of the proceeds from television rights in Canada.

The Nordiques joined U.S.-based franchises in 1984 in trying to have games played in the U.S. televised; this led to a $22 million lawsuit by the other Canada-based teams, which was settled out of court.