Gatineau Olympiques
Rink: Robert Guertin Centre
Capacity: 4,000
Built: 1957
Demolished: 2024
League: QMJHL
City: Gatineau, Quebec
Home Of: Gatineau Olympiques
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: February 9, 2020 vs Rimouski
Unique Arena: #52
QMJHL Arena: #8
For years I had talked about going to a game in Gatineau and even stopped into the rink once in 2016 for a look around. However, with it being the closest QMJHL rink to my home I had always put it off and figured I’d go eventually. Eventually turned into ‘well they’re going to move to a new arena soon,’ so it kicked me in the ass to finally go see a game at the famous Bob that I had heard so much about.
The arena was actually closer to Parliament Hill in Ottawa than the home of the 67’s across the river. While there is an obvious front facade to the arena. the main entrance and box office were actually on the side of the rink as seen in the photo above where the people are headed into. There was a large free parking lot on the side of that main entrance.
As I mentioned, the main entrance is on the side of the building which is behind the Olympiques bench. So, everybody is filtered to the right down in the corner, and after getting your tickets scanned everybody enters the bowl from the corner tunnel in the foreground of the above photo. With a bigger crowd on hand to see future 1st overall pick Alexis Lafrenière play for the visiting Océanic, it made getting into the rink a tad difficult until we walked up to the main concourse that runs around the top of the small yet steep bowl.
Despite being by far the closest QMJHL rink to the OHL, this place screamed old time Q hockey. It was a small rink with tons of history, where you sit on top of the players and can get some great atmosphere that you don’t see in new arenas. Wooden roof, wooden seats and a tight overall feel may not be very comfortable, especially for regulars, but it was fantastic to take in as an outsider before it closed its doors.
Believe it or not the panoramic shot below is from the top row. Mind you it was a bit lower in that section than the rest of the rink thanks to the press box behind the shot, but it just shows you the intimacy this place has.
I was very luckily in my timing of finally going to see a game at Robert Guertin, as we were there on February 9, 2020. Just over a month later the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By the time the Q hit the ice with fans again, the new Centre Slush Puppie was ready for the Piques. Gatineau only played six more regular season games at the Bob before COVID shut things down. The team returned to play a pair of preseason games in the fall of 2021 before moving to their new home, so I feel very lucky to get to one of the final handful of games there by total accident, but also getting to see one of the last sold-out crowds the building would ever see.
