BROSSARD – The fall TV season is almost here, and the Habs are again stars of a must-see series.
Season 2 of The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens debuts on Crave on Thursday, August 21, with the first two episodes of the six-part series dropping on the streaming platform.
The program goes behind the scenes with the team during the 2024-25 campaign, building off a successful first season that was Crave’s most-watched documentary series in Canada in 2024.
On Monday, members of the organization behind the show met the media during a press junket at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard to discuss what viewers can expect from its sophomore season.
Here are a few highlights from the event:
Please note that some answers have been modified for clarity and conciseness.
Alexandre Carrier on experiencing a season with cameras constantly around:
You know you’re being filmed. You try to ignore it, but when you’re in the room and Martin [St-Louis] is giving a speech and you see the cameraman beside you, that’s when you notice it most. After a win or moments like that, you don’t pay attention as much. It’s really in the more serious or quieter times that you realize the crew, the microphones and the cameras are around.
France Margaret Bélanger on the public’s response to the documentary series:
[The Canadiens] already have an enormous following on social media, so this show is like an extension of the content our team creates. Fans love seeing what happens behind the scenes. We always put our players at the forefront in the content we create ourselves, but we’re able to show the bigger picture with The Rebuild: the hockey operations, how things unfold and conversations between Martin St-Louis and his players. We also put a real emphasis on the players’ personalities. In Season 2, you’ll notice there are a lot of features of players at home and with their families, and fans really love that.
Jayden Struble on being featured in Season 1 of The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens:
It was pretty cool. It’s definitely a little weird seeing yourself and hearing yourself, because we’re just regular guys going about our day, and then suddenly you see yourself on TV. It was a little weird, but it was cool. I liked it. […] My family was in an episode for my first game, so they thought getting some screen time was pretty cool. For me, having them be a part of it –– that was the best part.
David Savard on his last season in the NHL being documented on camera:
In four or five years, when my youngest is a little older, it’ll be pretty special to re-watch the last few moments I played in the NHL. They did such a good job in Season 1 of documenting our lives: the meetings, the ups and downs we go through in a season. From the outside, fans don’t always see that, so I think it’s cool for them. Even our families; they live it through us, but they’re not in meetings, they’re not in all those hard practices and they don’t see all the stuff we do at the rink, so it’s definitely going to be cool to look back on all of that.
Episodes 1 and 2 of Season 2 of The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens debut on Thursday, August 21 on Crave. Subsequent episodes of the six-part series release individually on Thursdays, with the season finale set for September 18.