Montreal Canadiens Tickets

Montreal Canadiens Tickets

Montreal Canadiens Tickets The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team, the oldest established National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, and one of the most successful clubs in all of North American sports history. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the Canadiens are one of the NHL's 'Original Six' franchises, along with the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs. In their near-century of existence, the team has won twenty-four Stanley Cups, the most championships by any team in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens play their home games at the Bell Centre.

Before there was an NHL, there was a Montreal Canadiens team. They were a charter member of the league's forerunner, the National Hockey Association (NHA), in 1909, operating as the Haileybury Hockey Club. The next season, the Club Antique-Canadien, seeking admission to the NHA, threatened suit for copyright infringement over the NHA's Les Canadiens club, and were admitted to the league, taking over the Haileybury franchise and renaming it the Canadiens, while the former Les Canadiens franchise was taken over by Toronto interests the next season. On July 22, 2005, the Canadiens were awarded the fifth position in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft to be held on July 30, 2005 in Ottawa, Canada.

They used the fifth pick to draft goaltender Carey Price of the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League. On September 19, prior to the start of the 2005-06 season, the Canadiens announced that they had adopted "Youppi!", the popular former Montréal Expos mascot who was left behind when the Expos moved to Washington. This is the first time the Canadiens have had a mascot in their 90+ year history. During the 2005 training camp and pre-season, the main story was arguably the performance of the team's 2nd round pick in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, right winger Guillaume Latendresse. The 18-year old Latendresse won over fans, media, teammates and team management alike, playing with skill and passion, on-level with veteran players and surpassing other rookies. However, Latendresse was told he would not play with the Habs in 2005-06. He was sent back to the QMJHL on October 2, 2005.

Other stories included elite Swiss defenseman Mark Streit's quest at making the NHL after spending 10 years in the Switzerland National League A with the ZSC Lions and the race for the backup goaltender position left vacant by the injured Cristobal Huet between Carey Price, NCAA Brown University alumni Yann Danis, and underdog journeyman Olivier Michaud. However, on January 13, 2006, with the teams' performance not up to standards, Claude Julien was fired as coach, and replaced on an interim basis by Bob Gainey, the teams' general manager. Guy Carbonneau is scheduled to take over as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens as soon as he becomes comfortable with the position. Later on, Montreal lead goalie Jose Theodore was also traded to the Colorado Avalanche in return for goalie David Aebischer. The Canadiens made the playoffs with 93 points finishing 7th in the Eastern Conference but losing in 6 games to the heavily favoured Carolina Hurricanes in the first round. The Hurricanes went on to win the Stanley Cup on June 19, 2006.