Montréal Canadiens

 

Bell Centre

It might not be your team, but one cannot help but be moved by the energy in the Bell Centre as the Canadiens take the ice at the beginning of the game. A video recording of the team’s history, founded in 1909, winning 24 Stanley Cups, and producing the likes of Richard, Morenz, Béliveau, and LaFluer, all of whom were from the city, starts the countdown to faceoff. At the conclusion of the video, the narrator argues that it is the city that made the men, and therefore the team, rather than vice versa. The people were the heart of the Canadiens, in other words.

As the last home game of the year, and the Saturday prior to Christmas, the mood in the arena was festive and celebratory. The scoreboard repeatedly showed fans wearing both Canadien sweaters and Santa hats with the team’s logo. The anglophone family sitting to my right, a mother, father, and two teenaged daughters, were very much into the contest on ice, discussing players and the flow of the game. While the parents enjoyed a couple of beers, the young women indulged in pizza and popcorn.

When Angie and I walked down to the Bell Centre Plaza earlier in the afternoon, we met a couple from Munich who were going to attend the game later. Decked out in Canadiens gear, they recounted their two-week trip to Ottawa, Buffalo, and Montréal to see NHL players from Germany play. The man was a Montréal fan, while the woman preferred the Washington Capitals. Nevertheless, they were excited about the prospect of seeing Moritz Seider play for Detroit that evening. At the game that night, I did not realize it until well into the third period, the man sitting to my left and his two companions, possibly a brother and father, were all speaking German. Perhaps a sign of the NHL’s global reach.

The chiens chauds (hot dogs) at Canadiens games are legendary. Although I had a satisfying pregame mean, at second intermission I felt compelled to sample one along with a locally brewed L’Amer IPA. The dog, skinny but flavorful, comes on a toasted bun, which is its most distinctive feature, along with ketchup, mustard, and relish. About ten days prior, when the Penguins were playing in Montreal, the broadcasters, Steve Mears and Colby Armstrong, indulged in chiens chauds during the first intermission, eating them on air. Armstrong related how during his playing days the Montreal staff would deliver a pile of dogs to the visiting team’s locker room at the conclusion of the game.

 

chien chaud

Game Report