Alejandro Avila
Videos by OutKick
The Montreal Canadiens add to their incredible playoff run with a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals against reigning champs, Tampa Bay Lightning.
While fans in Canada eagerly anticipate celebrating their team’s trip to the Finals — their first Finals series since 1993’s championship season — ongoing restrictions in Montreal may tempt their fans to party in the less-restricted city of Quebec.
This week, Central Canada VP of Restaurants Canada James Rilett provided a reminder of the deflating reality for Habs fans eager to celebrate the upcoming Stanley Finals series. “In normal times you’d pack a bar or restaurant as full as you possibly could and that’s just not possible anymore.”
Montreal comes off a 4-2 series win against the Las Vegas Golden Knights, while the Lightning delivered heartbreak for NY Islanders fans after Friday’s Game 7 win.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are back in the Stanley Cup Finals to face off against the Habs, a classic U.S.A. vs. Canada FACE-OFF not seen in the Finals since 2011’s Boston Bruins vs. Vancouver Canucks series.
Quebec, who has progressed in reopening quicker than Montreal, is bracing for a wave of Habs fans to embrace the freedoms in Quebec after announcing “75% of people 12 years and older living have been fully vaccinated.” Using a tier-based system similar to California’s draconian guidelines, Quebec moved to the less-restricting yellow tier this week based on the news, which will ease restrictions on gatherings and restaurant reopenings.
“They’re not fully open, but they’re definitely more open than other parts of the country, so it happened at a good time for them that they can get more people in restaurants and bars there than before,” said Rilett, in the report from TSN.
While sales in bars, and other eating establishments, normally experience a boost in sales during their championship series across sports, Montreal is set to deal another blow to its food industry by missing out on a rare moment to catch a break during the upcoming Stanley Cup Finals.
This year’s festivities come with the hurdle of social distancing and COVID prevention efforts still enforced in Canada as the U.S. continues to embrace a full reopening — minus some comments expressed by President Biden regarding more lockdowns.
The sane have returned to normal, while proponents of outdated COVID guidelines, such as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, continue to be a stick in the mud for a country ready to party.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals series is set for Mon, June 28, 8 p.m. (ET).
Canada is a real socialist country for those who don’t know
And you don’t see millions of people flocking across their border to get in nuff said
It was strange watching 20K maskless fans right outside the arena jammed together, but inside they were limited to 3,500. Stupid is as stupid does.
We all saw it haha.. It’s all so obvious and dumb
Quebec is a province, Quebec City is a city. The current headline reads like: “Yankees fans might head to New York to watch the world series.” It should say “Canadiens fans may head to Quebec City to watch the finals”. As it stands now it’s stupid-sounding
Yeah, doesn’t make sense. Quebec is like FL to MI to ME in area.
“Bucs fan head to Florida to watch Super Bowl”
At least we in the US can flee to Florida or Texas. Where does a poor Canadian flee? Quebec – for just a little less Gestapo action?
Go Habs, I guess – at least that’ll make Toronto fans cry more delicious tears.
Go Bolts!
Canadians are such sheep. No home ice advantage… LMFAO. I thought the border with Canada wasn’t open….. oh yeah, I forgot it is for the important people just not the everyday plebe…. Enjoy you’re authoritarian/Marxist country. Maybe we need to build a wall to the north as well…
I thought, since the Blue Jays were still playing in Buffalo, that Trudeau wasn’t allowing any disease dripping Americans into his dictatorship. I’m surprised he’s allowing the Bolts to even travel to Montreal.