Robert Hing isn’t your typical Montreal Canadiens season ticket holder.
Sure, he’s got jerseys and memorabilia and a lifetime of memories (some more painful than others, he’d admit).
But unlike most of the fans who pack the Bell Centre for every game, Hing lives three thousand kilometres away from the corner of Rue de la Montagne and Rue Saint-Antoine. He is the athletic director at Bishop McNally High School in Calgary and makes the cross-country journey a few times a year, all for the love of the team.
“I got there for the playoffs in round one,” he said. “That was my dream as a kid — to be a season ticket holder.”
Hing’s family roots are in Mauritius, a French-speaking island off the coast of Madagascar, and he grew up in the Ottawa Valley, with frequent visits to Montreal.
“As long as I can remember, I was a Habs fan,” he said. “It’s just fantastic. Every chance I can, I just surround myself with Habs fans.”
Like a lot of Canadiens fans, Hing is feeling quite optimistic these days, not just about the current run, but what lies ahead.
Robert Hing, a Montreal Canadiens season ticket holder who lives in Calgary. (CBC News)
This Montreal Canadiens squad is the youngest to advance this far in the NHL playoffs since the 1993 Habs, who are the last Canadian team to hoist the Stanley Cup. At an average age of just 25.8 years and with several core players like Cole Caufield (25 years old), Lane Hutson (22), Ivan Demidov (20), Juraj Slafkovsky (22), and captain Nick Suzuki (26) barely entering the prime of their careers, the window for a 25th Stanley Cup parade down Sainte-Catherine Street has only begun to open.
“For them to win a second round and be in the Eastern Conference Final just four years into this rebuild seems almost too good to be true,” he said, “but the team has been over-performing all year, realistically, so it also doesn’t seem like a crazy achievement.”
A long distance love affair with no end in sight
Hing moved to Calgary in 2006 after he met his future wife while studying in Edinburgh.
Distance, they say, only makes the heart grow fonder, and he applied for season tickets for his boyhood team. Hing had to wait a decade before getting the call in 2019.
“Even though it doesn’t probably make sense … I’m not giving it up,” he said.
He already has an inkling of what his next career move will be.
“While there isn’t a designated Montreal Canadiens pub [in Calgary], if I ever start a second business, that’ll be it,” he said. “Open a house Habs bar somewhere in Calgary.”
Life lessons from sports fandom
The 49-year-old Hing said being a Montreal Canadiens diehard has been about far more than the on-ice exploits. The love he has for the bleu-blanc-rouge has taught him hard-earned life lessons that he applies every day.
Hing points to the Canadiens’ loss to the Calgary Flames in the 1989 Stanley Cup Final. It remains as the second (and last) time a visiting team has hoisted the Stanley Cup on Montreal Canadiens home ice in franchise history.
“1989 was the moment that taught me that heartbreak exists,” he said.
“You have those things in life where you learn the highs and the lows. ’89 was a low and then ’93 was obviously the one where I was a teenager and really have a vivid memory still of every single second of that.”
And Hing is far from the only fan to attach themselves to legendary goalie Patrick Roy.
The Hall of Fame netminder was dealt by Montreal to Colorado in 1995 following a public, mid-game spat with former team president Ronald Corey. Hing called the trade “tragic,” but one that came with a newfound perspective.
“It actually also became the moment where I knew for a fact I bleed this team, because my hero has been traded and I wondered, ‘Will my heart follow him?'” he said.
“It didn’t. I couldn’t help it … [Roy’s replacement] Jocelyn Thibault, whoever it is, this is our guy, this is our team. As sad as it was, it solidified my connection to the team.”
WATCH | Canadiens fans react to the team’s overtime win in Buffalo:
Montrealers celebrate as Canadiens advance to East final with OT win against Sabres
Habs fans celebrated in the Bell Centre after Alex Newhook scored in overtime against the Buffalo Sabres, lifting the Canadiens to a 3-2 Game 7 victory and sending Montreal to the Eastern Conference final for the first time since 2021.
He wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Your fandom is etched in the struggle,” he explained. “Whether it’s the struggles of supporting the team or following the team or watching the team … those things just connect you to the team even more.”
Hing even applies the lessons he’s learned from his Montreal Canadiens fandom to his marriage.
“If you love something, there are ups and downs, and the important thing is sticking to it and staying and working through it, and better days do come if you sit through that,” Hing said.
He readily admits that there is a “cheesiness” to the thought.
“I tell that to my wife all the time: ‘I’m a loyal person. I’ve been ride-or-die with this, and I will be ride-or-die with you.'”