in the playoffs allowed the Hartford Whalers to sweep the Nordiques in three games. The next season the Nordiques met the Whalers in the playoffs for the second straight season, this time the Nords would get their revenge beating Hartford in six games. The next round saw more of the Nordiques–Canadiens rivalry as the playoff series went to seven games, with the Canadiens coming out on top, after that the Nords would not return to the playoffs again until 1993. In that same season, when Quebec hosted Rendez-Vous '87, an alteration of the All-Star Game to include the Soviet national team, a costumed mascot, Badaboum—a fuzzy, roly-poly blue creature—began entertaining fans at the Colisée with his bizarre dance routines. Badaboum was created just for Rendez-Vous, but generated such a following that the Nordiques made him a permanent fixture at home games. Decline began the following season. The Nordiques finished last in their division – the first of five straight years of finishing at the bottom of the Adams Division – and missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years. The slide continued: in 1988–89 they had the league's worst record. Michel Bergeron, who had coached the team from 1980 to 1987, returned for 1989–90. The season was also highlighted by the arrival of Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur, who turned down a lucrative offer from the Los Angeles Kings and chose instead to finish his career in his home province. It soon became clear Lafleur's best years were far behind him. "The Flower" managed only 24 goals in 98 games with Quebec over two seasons. The season saw the Nordiques bottom out with a record of 12–61–7 (31 points)—easily the worst record in the league, and not even half the point total of the next-worst team, the Vancouver Canucks. It is still the worst record in Nordiques/Avalanche history (both NHL and WHA), and one of the worst for a non-expansion team since 1967. It was also the second of three straight seasons with the worst record in the league. Michel Goulet and Peter Stastny were traded in 1990, winding up with the Chicago Blackhawks and New Jersey Devils respectively. Despite the stellar play of young forward Joe Sakic, the Nordiques struggled throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft they drafted Swedish prospect Mats Sundin, making him the first European to be