{"id":698968,"date":"2026-05-28T00:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698968\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T00:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:55:10","slug":"canadian-and-quebec-politicians-slam-nhl-for-banning-montreal-canadiens-watch-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698968\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian and Quebec politicians slam NHL for banning Montreal Canadiens watch party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\tBy Staff<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadian Press\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted May 27, 2026 6:30 pm<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tUpdated May 27, 2026 7:10 pm\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t1 min read\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>Federal and\u00a0Quebec\u00a0politicians are criticizing the National Hockey League after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/montreal-canadiens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Montreal\u00a0Canadiens<\/a> fans in the Gatineau region were banned from hosting a watch party at a local arena.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Organizers of the cancelled event said the NHL told them they were not allowed to proceed with their party last Saturday at the 4000-seat Slush Puppie Centre because it is located within a territory where the Ottawa Senators have exclusive marketing rights.<\/p>\n<p>The organizers say they also spoke to the Senators who refused to help them organize a Habs party at an arena that is about 35 kilometres away from the Ottawa team\u2019s home at the Canadian Tire Centre.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Transport Minister Steve MacKinnon, who represents the Gatineau riding, told journalists this morning that the move was a serious mistake.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/national.jpg\" alt=\"Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you&#8217;ll never miss the day&#8217;s top stories.<\/p>\n<p>He said many hockey fans in Gatineau are rooting for the Canadiens and they deserve to come together to experience the excitement of the playoff games.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Sports<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Quebec\u00a0legislature unanimously adopted a motion yesterday calling on the NHL to reconsider its decision and allow those in Gatineau and the Outaouais region to host such parties.<\/p>\n<p>The NHL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Staff The Canadian Press Posted May 27, 2026 6:30 pm Updated May 27, 2026 7:10 pm 1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,5790,575,85,340528],"class_list":["post-698968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-watch-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}