Something special happened this spring in Montreal, and it wasn’t just the Canadiens’ magical ride to the Eastern Conference final.
Just as notable was what was going on in the streets of the city. There were some new kids on the block, a new wave of Canadiens fans ready to stake their place front and centre in the Habs Nation.
I spent six weeks embedded on the front lines of the fan revolution, hanging out in the giant crowds outside the Bell Centre on Canadiens-de-Montréal Ave. and at viewing parties in pubs, concert halls, churches and parks across the city. The vast majority of the folks cheering on le bleu-blanc-rouge were in their late teens and 20s.
This is the generation that came of age with Habs teams that never had scoring stars, and they’re not shy about showing their colours. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette
The Canadiens were generating more excitement around this playoff run than I have seen since I started following the team as a kid during the 1970s. It might rub the older generation the wrong way, but these kids are more pumped than even those fans when it was a given the Habs would be contending for the Stanley Cup and that they would win it frequently. The first line of my book, Habs Nation, is: “The Canadiens’ parade will follow the usual route.”
That’s what former mayor Jean Drapeau would say almost every spring. A Cup parade was so commonplace that he didn’t even need to tell people where to go.
But this is all ancient history for the new-wave fans. They grew up in an era when the Canadiens were often mediocre. Sure, they went deep in 2010, ’14 and during the quirky COVID-rules year of 2021, but none of those teams was poised for long-term success.
This is the generation that came of age with Habs teams that never had scoring stars. Montreal’s formula was to rely on a great goalie to save their bacon. The style of play was dump and chase, clog the neutral zone and pray Carey Price produces a miracle.
Scott Glassman watches as the Canadiens were being dominated by the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 on May 29. “We had one run to the Cup final, which was the pandemic. So we weren’t able to celebrate out in the community,” he says. John Kenney / Montreal Gazette
But now these twentysomething fans have the youngest team in the NHL, and it is exploding with marquee talent. Lane Hutson is already a star offensive defenceman. Cole Caufield just scored 51 goals, the first Hab to do so in more than 30 years. Nick Suzuki is the first Canadien to rack up 100 points in 40 years. The team also has one of the NHL’s best goalies in Jakub Dobes.
Scott Glassman, 28, was at Maison Publique McLean’s watching the final game of the Canadiens-Carolina Hurricanes Eastern Conference final, and as depressing as Game 5 was, he was super upbeat about the Habs.
“I’ve been watching the Habs for 20 years,” Glassman said. “We had one run to the Cup final, which was the pandemic. So we weren’t able to celebrate out in the community. I have my dad and my uncles telling me all about the glory days, about all the Scotty Bowman championships.
“This is our first window. Now, we have great management, a great core, so we’re seeing what the next decade could look like for us and we’re just excited about it. All our core guys are 26 years old or under. Suzuki, Caufield, (Ivan) Demidov, (Juraj) Slafkovsky. That’s where the optimism comes from. It’s not a one-off. We are poised to be a top contender for the next decade.”
Jayden Sisk (left) and Jonathan Coter celebrate after a Bell Centre viewing party of a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres. John Kenney / Montreal Gazette
Older Habs fans tend to be grumpy, always comparing these middling teams to Les Glorieux of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. But the young fans don’t do that. They totally bought into the rebuild and now they’re just loving the fruits of it.
“The older Montreal fans kept saying Montreal fans will never accept a rebuild,” said Ata Czaja, 27, whom I met at St. Jax Church watching a game. “And I said I don’t believe that. Everyone I speak to, we just love the Habs so much, whatever the team decides to do, we will get behind it. We’ve loved our team through the entire rebuild and now it’s paying dividends. It is a generational thing. We’re experiencing something new. Honestly, I think we deserve it.”
In short, they’re ready to party.
“With this fan base, it doesn’t matter if we win or lose because we’ve got each other,” said Maya Hopkins, 25, who was also watching the final game of the Habs’ playoff run at Maison Publique McLean’s. “Whether we win or lose, it’s always a good time. We have so much of a desire for community … in this generation. We like to spend time together and I think hockey games are a great way to do that.”
At Club Soda, Thierry Bruyère-L’Abbé and Camille Dehaene react to the loss to the Sabres in the dying minutes of the first game of the second round playoff series. Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette
And they were totally confident that if it didn’t work out this year, it will next year or the year after that.
And they just want to have fun. That last point was brought home at the watch party for Game 7 of the first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Famously, the Canadiens didn’t get a shot on goal during the second period.
Acting as the grumpy fan from another era, I was disgusted. But the 21,000 fans at the Bell Centre were happily doing the wave.
It was beautiful. These young fans aren’t going to have their rules of engagement set by the old guard. They’ll do whatever they want.
They are closer to the team than we have been in decades. They feel close to them because they follow them on social media and are constantly fed a steady stream of behind-the-scenes videos showing the players off the ice.
The best thing about this relationship between the team and the fans is its unfettered positivity. The players really are a family. They love each other and the young fans love them.
Clara Alex, left, and Ata Czaja celebrate a first-period goal as they watch from St. Jax Church during Game 5 between the Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres on May 14. They met during the first round while watching a game at a pub. John Kenney / Montreal Gazette
And no fan is happier than Czaja. Watching Game 4 of the Tampa series at the Trois Brasseurs pub downtown, he met circus performer Clara Alex, 21, and they cemented their romance by watching every game after that at different drinking establishments.
“I’m so lucky to have met Clara, and I keep telling her that,” said Czaja.
And this inspirational run has turned Alex into a passionate Habs fan.
“When they say experiencing the playoffs in Montreal is special, it’s totally true,” Alex said. “It’s like nothing I’ve seen before.”
It’s quite literally a Canadiens love story.
Madison McLelland and Lawrence Marques, left, celebrate a goal while watching the first game of the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes at Brasserie des Rapides in LaSalle. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette
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