The Montreal Crowd Claimed A Victory

Something like 40,000 people were in the immediate vicinity of the Canadiens' arena on Sunday night, per the TV broadcast. About half of them were inside the league's largest building—and therefore, in my experience, the loudest. The other half was crowded into the huge outdoor plaza that had to add a third giant screen to keep up with demand. Quebec hasn't been the center of the hockey universe in my lifetime, but it's still hard for me not to get romantic about French-Canadians and their game. From Maurice Richard to Marie-Philip Poulin, there is an overwhelming amount of hockey history tied to this area, and a tremendous pride in that history that fuels a rabid devotion to the teams of today. It's a lot of pressure, and early in their careers I worried about the ability of Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki to carry the weight of this fanbase's anxieties. But as Suzuki's taken over the captaincy and Caufield's become a 50-goal scorer, they've ushered in a new era of Canadiens hockey that has blessed these fans with an unbelievable young core. Players like Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson, and Ivan Demidov could all easily play high schoolers on a teen drama filmed in Vancouver for the tax breaks. But in Montreal, they're maturing into hockey heroes. Every Habs scorer in their 6-2 win was 25 years old or younger, and the combined force of their attack, coupled with the volume of the Montreal crowd, created a scene that rattled the Sabres.