The Montreal Canadiens (), officially () and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. Since 1996, the team has played its home games at the Bell Centre, originally known as the Molson Centre. The Canadiens previously played at the Montreal Forum, which housed the team for seven decades and all but their first two Stanley Cup championships.
Founded in 1909, the Canadiens are the oldest continuously operating professional ice hockey team worldwide, and the only existing NHL club to predate the founding of the league. One of the earliest North American professional sports franchises, the Canadiens' history predates that of every other Canadian franchise outside the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts, as well as every American franchise outside baseball and the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals. The franchise is one of the "Original Six", the teams that made up the NHL from 1942 until the 1967 expansion. The team's championship season in 1992–93 marked the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup.
The Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup 24 times, more times than any other franchise, having earned 23 victories since the founding of the NHL, and 22 since 1927, when NHL teams became the only ones to compete for the Stanley Cup. The Canadiens also had the most championships by a team of any of the major North American sports leagues until the New York Yankees won their 25th World Series title in 1999.
History
The Canadiens were founded by J. Ambrose O'Brien on December 4, 1909, as a charter member of the National Hockey Association (NHA), the forerunner to the National Hockey League. It was to be the team of the francophone community in Montreal, composed of francophone players, and under francophone ownership as soon as possible. The founders named the team "Les Canadiens", a term identified at the time with French speakers. The team's inaugural season was not a success, as they placed last in the league. After their first year, ownership was transferred to George Kennedy of Montreal and the team's record improved over the next seasons. The team won its first Stanley Cup championship in the 1915–16 season. In 1917, with four other NHA teams, the Canadiens formed the NHL, and they won their first NHL Stanley Cup during the 1923–24 season, led by Howie Morenz. The team moved from the Mount Royal Arena to the Montreal Forum for the 1926–27 season.
The club began the 1930s decade successfully, with back-to-back Stanley Cup wins in 1930 and 1931. However, the Canadiens, along with cross-town rivals the Montreal Maroons, declined both on the ice and economically during the Great Depression era. Losses grew to the point where team owners considered selling interest to Cleveland, Ohio, though local investors were ultimately found to finance the Canadiens. After the Maroons suspended operations following the 1937–38 season, several of their players joined the Canadiens.
Led by the "Punch Line" of Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Toe Blake and Elmer Lach in the 1940s, the Canadiens enjoyed success again atop the NHL. From 1953 to 1960, the franchise won six Stanley Cups, including a record five straight from 1956 to 1960, with a new set of stars coming to prominence: Jean Béliveau, Dickie Moore, Doug Harvey, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, Jacques Plante and Richard's younger brother, Henri.
The Canadiens added ten more championships in 15 seasons from 1965 to 1979, with another dynastic run of four-straight Cups from 1976 to 1979. In the 1976–77 season, the Canadiens set three still-standing team records – fewest losses (8) in an 80-game season, the longest home unbeaten streak (34), and best goal differential (+216) – with one additional record that lasted almost half a century for the most points (132) in an 80-game season until it was surpassed by the 2022–23 Boston Bruins. In the 1977–78 season, the team had a 28-game unbeaten streak, the second-longest in NHL history. The next generation of stars included Guy Lafleur, Yvan Cournoyer, Ken Dryden, Pete Mahovlich, Jacques Lemaire, Pierre Larouche, Steve Shutt, Bob Gainey, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe and Larry Robinson. Scotty Bowman, who would later set a record for most NHL victories by a coach, was the team's head coach for its last five Stanley Cup victories in the 1970s.
The Canadiens won Stanley Cups in 1986, led by rookie star goaltender Patrick Roy, and in 1993, continuing their streak of winning at least one championship in every decade from the 1910s to the 1990s (this streak came to an end in the 2000s). In March 1996, the team moved from the Montreal Forum, its home during 70 seasons and 22 Stanley Cups, to the Molson Centre (now called Bell Centre).
Following Roy's departure in 1995, the Canadiens fell into an extended stretch of mediocrity, missing the playoffs in four of their next ten seasons and failing to advance past the second round of the playoffs until 2010. By the late 1990s, with both an ailing team and monetary losses exacerbated by a record-low value of the Canadian dollar, Montreal fans feared their team would end up relocated to the United States. Team owner Molson Brewery sold control of the franchise and the Molson Centre to American businessman George N. Gillett Jr. in 2001, with the right of first refusal for any future sale by Gillett and a condition that the NHL Board of Governors must unanimously approve any attempt to move to a new city. Led by club president Pierre Boivin, the Canadiens returned to being a lucrative enterprise, earning additional revenues from broadcasting and arena events. In 2009, Gillett sold the franchise to a consortium led by the Molson family which included The Woodbridge Company, BCE/Bell, the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Michael Andlauer, Luc Bertrand and the National Bank Financial Group for $575 million, more than double the $275 million he spent on the purchase eight years prior.
During the 2008–09 season, the Canadiens celebrated their 100th anniversary with various events, including hosting both the 2009 NHL All-Star Game, and the 2009 NHL entry draft.
The Canadiens became the first team in NHL history to reach 3,000 victories with their 5–2 victory over the Florida Panthers on December 29, 2008.
For the 2020–21 season, the league moved the Canadiens along with the other six teams from Canada to the North Division. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadiens only played against teams in the division in the regular season to avoid travel restrictions between the United States and Canada. All teams in the division played without fans to begin the season. The Canadiens advanced through the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the playoffs 4–3, overcoming a 3–1 Maple Leafs lead in the series. The Canadiens then swept the Winnipeg Jets in the second round, advancing to the Stanley Cup semifinals. After defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in the penultimate round, clinching an overtime victory in game 6 of the series, they reached their first Stanley Cup Final in 28 years, whilst also being the first Canadian team to do so since the Vancouver Canucks in 2011. Montreal eventually lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4–1.
In 2021–22, the Canadiens were unable to replicate their success from the prior season, ultimately finishing last in the league for the first time since the 1939–40 season and the first time in the NHL's expansion era, in what was one of the worst seasons in the team's history. In the process, they set team records for most regulation losses (49), most goals against (319), fewest wins (22), and fewest points (55), while their .335 point percentage was the team's third-worst ever, after only the 1925–26 (.319) and 1939–40 (.260) campaigns. As a result, team owner Geoff Molson authorized a "rebuild" of the roster over an extended period, a first in the modern history of the franchise. The Canadiens finished fifth-last in the subsequent 2022–23 and 2023–24 seasons.
Team identity
The Canadiens organization operates in both English and French. For many years, public address announcements and press releases have been given in both languages, and the team website and social media outlets are in both languages as well. At home games, the first stanza of O Canada is sung in French, and the chorus is sung in English.
Crest and sweater design
The classic "C" and "H" in the Canadiens' logo, one of the sport's oldest and most recognizable, were first used together in the 1917–18 season, when the club changed its name from "Club Athlétique Canadien" to "Club de Hockey Canadien", before evolving to its current form in 1952–53. Previous logo iterations had simply a "C" for "Canadiens" in 1909–10 and a "C" with an "A" inside from 1913 to 1916, with the "A" standing for "Athlétique". The "H" stands for "Hockey" in the 1917–18 team name ("Club de Hockey Canadien"), not "Habitants", a popular misconception. In Quebec history, habitants were francophone settlers who farmed the land along both shores of the St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As a nickname for the hockey team, "Habitants" is attested in French on 9 February 1914 in a Le Devoir report of a 9–3 win over Toronto. According to About.com, the first man to refer to the team as "the Habs" was Tex Rickard, owner of the Madison Square Garden, in 1924. Rickard apparently told a reporter that the "H" on the Canadiens' sweaters was for "Habitants".
Since 1911, the team's primary colours have been blue, white and red. The home sweater is predominantly red, with four blue-and-white stripes: one across each arm, one across the chest, and one across the waistline. The main road sweater is white with a red-and-blue stripe across the waist, red at the end of both sleeves, and red shoulder yokes. The basic design has been in use since 1914 and took its current form in 1925, evolving as materials changed. Because of the team's long history and significance in Quebec, the sweater has been called ("the holy flannel sweater").
As of 2015, the Canadiens' home red sweater is the league's only uniform to feature the French language version of the NHL shield logo (LNH) on the neck collar, in acknowledgment of Montreal's French Canadian heritage. The road white sweater has the English NHL shield logo.
The Canadiens used multiple other designs before 1914. The original shirt of the 1909–10 season was blue with a white C. The second season had a red shirt featuring a green maple leaf with the C logo and green pants. In the season before they adopted the current look, the Canadiens wore a "barber pole" jersey with red, white, and blue stripes, and a logo with a white maple leaf reading "CAC" ("Club athlétique Canadien"). All three designs were worn during the 2009–10 season as part of the Canadiens' centenary.
In the 2020–21 season, the Canadiens unveiled a "Reverse Retro" alternate uniform in collaboration with Adidas. The uniform was essentially the same as their regular red uniform, but with blue as the primary colour and red as the stripe colour. A second iteration was released in the 2022–23 season, again using the same template but with red relegated to the logo only and featuring a light blue base with white/dark blue/white stripes.
This period also saw the introduction of corporate sponsor advertising across NHL-sanctioned equipment, starting with helmet ads and followed by front jersey patches on gameday uniforms. Contextually, the Canadiens' away jerseys feature the Air Canada logo in the upper right chest area, while the name and shield of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is stitched onto its home counterpart.