The Canadiens want the main focus to be on the present and the future during this rebuilding process.
They also don’t want to forget their glorious past with a record 24 Stanley Cups. That makes it a juggling act when it comes to season-opening ceremonies.
The Canadiens juggled it very well before Wednesday night’s 1-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre.
It started with Quebec actor/director Luc Picard, who was sitting in the stands, being shown on the giant screen talking about the team’s connection with fans.
“I’ve always had this team in my blood,” Picard said in French. “And, over the years, I’ve experienced extraordinary moments with them. Moments that I’ve shared with my friends, with my family, but also often with strangers, people I did not know. Because that’s also the Canadiens. It’s the place where we can all experience the same things at the same time, while all being on the same side.”
Nothing brings people together more in Montreal and Quebec than the Canadiens.
Picard’s speech was followed by a video on the giant screen that he narrated with the main focus remaining on the fans while celebrating both the past and present.
“Greatness on ice was fuelled by passion of fans that turned ordinary men into legends, like Maurice (Richard), Jean (Béliveau), Guy (Lafleur) and Patrick (Roy),” Picard said while the four Hall of Famers were shown in the video. “All born here and destined to become icons in the greatest hockey city on Earth. In them we saw us and their success became our own. Twenty-four times we joined them in raising hockey’s ultimate prize.
“The Canadiens are lifted by the Canadiens faithful and the Canadiens faithful are uplifted by a common love for what the bleu-blanc-rouge means to them and what it has meant to those who came before them,” Picard added. “The greatest moments you remember weren’t made by the players alone. … It was never just the ghosts. Montreal, we helped make them what they were.”
The current players were then introduced individually, skating to centre ice while the Metropolitan Orchestra was joined by a rock band to play Cold Play’s Fix You — a mix of old and new. That was followed by the orchestra playing O Canada while fans sang along in French and then English (don’t tell Quebec Premier François Legault).
It was all very well done after what was an underwhelming opening ceremony last year.
During Episode 2 of the new eight-part Crave docuseries titled The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens, a fan expressed his dissatisfaction to Geoff Molson about last year’s opening ceremony when the team owner/president was visiting private loges along with France Margaret Bélanger, the president of sports and entertainment for Groupe CH.
“Worst introduction I’ve seen in Canadiens history tonight,” the fan tells Molson.
“Did you hear what he just said?” Molson says to Bélanger after they leave the suite. “He said it was the worst introduction he’s ever seen in his life.
“Nobody’s going to write about how amazing it was,” Molson adds.
Bélanger responds: “But at least we didn’t have the torch.”
In an interview later in his office, Molson says about the opening ceremony: “It wasn’t our worst ever, but I’ll admit it wasn’t our best. We wanted it to be our best, but we’ll correct it for next year.”
They did — without bringing back the torch, which management obviously believes focuses too much on the past.
The bar is always set high for the Canadiens’ opening-game ceremony. As former Gazette sports columnist Michael Farber once wrote: “Only two institutions in Western civilization truly grasp ceremony: the House of Windsor and the Montreal Canadiens.“
Wednesday’s ceremony showed that the Canadiens are figuring out how to celebrate both the past and the present.
“I think the jersey just exemplifies everything this organization means,” the Canadiens’ Mike Matheson, who grew up in Pointe-Claire on Montreal’s West Island, said after the game when I asked him about the juggling act management faces. “So that, in and of itself, kind of exemplifies that. It’s so meaningful. So you don’t really have to highlight (the history) all too much. It’s right there in front of you every time you pull on the jersey. We have the guys up here (the Hall of Fame faces on the wall) in the locker room.”
I asked the same question to head coach Martin St. Louis, who grew up in Laval, during his post-game news conference.
“We are privileged — me coming behind that bench and the players wearing that jersey — what this organization, this franchise has done, the history behind it,” St. Louis said. “Because you focus on the future you can’t overlook that. I think each and every day we’re trying to respect that logo and earn the right to wear it. So for us, I don’t see us ever not honouring the past as we’re still moving forward.”
The Canadiens successfully did that Wednesday night — without the torch.