Eric Lafreniere sits in his hockey den at home in Garson, Ont., near Sudbury. The lifelong Habs fan is cheering them on for Friday's must-win Game 5.Cory Wright/The Globe and Mail
When Karl Subban moved to Sudbury, Ont., from Jamaica as a child, he was dismayed to find that not only did his new neighbours not look like him, but many of them spoke a foreign language.
Then, when he started playing street hockey with French-speaking kids in the northern Ontario city, something took root inside him. Soon he was dreaming about becoming Ken Dryden, the legendary Montreal Canadiens goaltender.
Subban would pass on his love for hockey – and for the Habs – to his son Pernell-Karl. Decades after his father first borrowed a neighbour’s hockey stick on the streets of Sudbury, P. K. Subban was drafted by the Canadiens and stole the hearts of fans in Montreal and beyond.
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Loyalty to a sports team usually has a lot to do with geography. Most people want to cheer on the hometown team. But across Canada, members of French-speaking communities have been following the Habs’ playoff run as avidly as anyone in Quebec. When it comes to the Canadiens, a team explicitly created to connect to francophones, there’s a cultural and linguistic appeal that stretches beyond mere points on a map.
“It’s so much of a passion for me,” said Sudbury resident Eric Lafreniere. “I love my wife and kids, obviously. But man, Montreal is right up there.”
A seat from the old Montreal Forum is one of many pieces of team memorabilia in Eric Lafreniere's Canadiens shrine.Cory Wright/The Globe and Mail
Lafreniere, 47, was born to French-speaking parents, members of the city’s sizable francophone community. Growing up, he said, hockey allegiances largely divided along linguistic lines – English-speakers were fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, while French-speakers were for the Canadiens.
“It’s always been a rivalry,” he said. “It’s like a question when you meet somebody. That’s how you judge a person, almost.”
Growing up, watching the game was a big family affair with aunts and uncles and cousins. And when he moved to a new house two years ago, Lafreniere begged his wife to let him turn the garage into a sort of shrine to the Habs.
It’s now equipped with outdoor lights that flash the bleu-blanc-rouge on game nights, two TVs, a hot dog roller and a seat from the Montreal Forum, where the Canadiens played until 1996. He bought the seat from someone in Barrie for $650, earning him several days of silent treatment from his wife.
During one recent game, Lafreniere counted 18 people in his garage. But he has one rule for these occasions: “We watch the game in French.”
For one thing, Lafreniere said, the francophone announcers are more exciting. But also, “it just brings back memories of watching it in French when I was a kid.” It’s a tradition he’s passed on to his 15-year-old son.
Hundreds of kilometres away, on a farm outside Bellegarde, Sask., Donald George also plans his days to be sure he’s home in time to watch the game. He’s been all-in for the Habs since he was nine years old, when he became fascinated by Ken Dryden and his trademark pose, glove and blocker resting on the end of his stick. He later became a Guy Lafleur fan.
Fans hold out hope that the Canadiens will show fight and prolong their matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes, who are on the verge of reaching the Stanley Cup Final.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Though the hamlet is historically French-speaking, and Mr. George attended French school, he found himself in the minority. These were the Wayne Gretzky years, and most kids in town, including his two younger brothers, were Edmonton Oilers fans. “If you were a Habs fan out here, you got teased a lot,” he said. “When they lost, I dreaded going to school the next day.”
But George, 56, stayed faithful to his team. Though it was the players who drew him in, he said, the cultural connection began to mean more as he got older.
The Canadiens were always meant to appeal to French-speakers, right from the team’s founding in 1909 by businessman Ambrose O’Brien.
“It was thought that if you had a team of francophone players it would make a significant impact, specifically in the city of Montreal,” said Liam Maguire, an NHL historian. “The appetite in the province of Quebec was deemed to have been insatiable.”
That heritage makes the Habs unique in the pantheon of NHL teams, said Brendan Kelly, author of a recent book about the Canadiens. “That aspect of the team was front-and-centre from 1909, and it’s still front-and-centre today,” he said. “If you’re thinking of what represents French-Canadian culture, what could it be more than the Montreal Canadiens?”
In Sudbury, Lafreniere hopes he’ll get to see the Habs win the Stanley Cup again soon – and this time with his son beside him. “This is something I want to live with him,” he said.
After a moment, he added: “Not something the Leafs have experienced recently.”