Stars shine on fun-to-watch 2025-’26 Habs team
Montréal is hockey, and when the city’s professional, National Hockey League (NHL) team the Montréal Canadiens (aka the Habs) are playing at home, there’s a palpable energy that can be felt throughout the city. And excitement is high in 2025-’26 for the 24-time Stanley Cup champions, who made a surprise playoff run last year, and have a number of emerging stars glittering on their roster.
The sacred game
If hockey is a religion in Montréal, then the Bell Centre is its temple. The 82-game NHL regular season includes 41 home ice games at the 21,302-capacity Bell Centre, where the Montréal Canadiens moved in 1996 from former epicentre of Habs hockey awesomeness in the city, the Montréal Forum. The Bell Centre boasts the most electric atmosphere in the NHL, which essentially makes Montréal vibrate for six months between October and April, and is unmatched anywhere else in the league.
The team has also unveiled an eye-popping new, full-colour, 3D-style centre-ice logo that references the team’s 1909 founding and its record 24 championships (fun fact: the Habs are the longest continuously operating professional ice hockey team in the world). It replaces the over-sized Canadiens CH logo and features the team’s full official name in French — Canadiens de Montréal — underscoring its unique roots in the NHL and paying respect to the official language of Québec.
A lineup that lights up
It’s never boring in Habs land, and that’s certainly true again this year with this highly talented phalanx of both new and veteran players. This season’s powerful offensive lineup includes captain Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovský, Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher and Patrik Laine, to name a few. Primary goaltender Samuel Montembeault will continue to provide a solid presence between the posts while backup Jakub Dobes will doubtless maintain his ascendant trajectory, which made for more than a few exciting netminding moments last season.
Defenceman Lane Hutson exceeded already high expectations in his astonishing rookie year, putting on a highly entertaining puck rock show whenever he took to the ice, and which saw him win the Calder Memorial Trophy for best NHL rookie in the 2024-’25 campaign. Also capturing Habs fans’ imaginations is the addition of rookie forward Ivan Demidov, a first-round pick who has the Bell Centre buzzing about the potential star power he could bring to the team.
Hot tips for hot tix
The Habs are so deeply ingrained in the city’s psyche that tickets can be hard to come by — but not impossible. In addition to single tickets, group tickets for special occasions such as birthdays or employee events can be had at a discount depending on the size of your group. There are also 5- to 10-game packs, a build-your-own-schedule 6-game plan, an exceptional family offer, and affordably priced tickets for students: special CEGEP Nights and University Nights feature reduced tickets and come with special promo offers such as free popcorn, water or beer.
Also, the new Habs for All program guarantees tickets for every Canadiens game at the Bell Centre for only $75 on a limited quantity basis. Tickets get released on certain dates beforehand, and the best way to get notified when tickets become available is to sign up for the monthly newsletter.
Are you experienced?
And great hockey watching is made even greater by the many premium fan “experiences” the Bell Centre has on offer, from sweet suite packages, to fine pre-game dining, to behind-the-scenes guided tours and, for the ultimate fan, an equally ultimate experience encompassing all of the forementioned and more.
In addition, Club 1909 is the official points program and online portal for Canadiens fans. Anyone can join, it’s free, and you can earn points for cool Canadiens items like player bobbleheads, Habs books, signed pucks, backpacks and more. Rewards also include access to unique and exclusive offers, like the chance to catch a game from the press gallery with free food and drinks. Go Habs, go!
To get your hands on some of the hottest Habs tickets in town, and explore your whole range of options and experiences, click here.
Jamie O'Meara
Jamie O'Meara was the Editor-in-Chief at C2 Montréal and the former Editor-in-Chief of alt-weekly newspaper HOUR Magazine.