Report From The Road – Montreal, January 10, 2009

I wanted to share some of my thoughts and observations of the game experience.

Attached is the only pic (of the game) that I took in Montreal. There’s a frickin’ Habs fan on the phone. WTF? I did not tell him to get off the phone.

Most of their fans were “leaners.” I would say I saw about 1/3 of them on their cell phones with some regularity. They were very good about not getting up during play.

They did the wave. Twice. (OK, it might have been more times than that.)

The arena is STEEP and HUGE. Kinda like a warehouse, though. I thought it would be a lot more modern.

Their safety nets go all the way to the top (or at least to the bottom of the suspended press box.)

It was loud. EVERYONE was into the game (except for that whole phone thing).

Every seat seemed to be obstructed by the person’s head in front of you…even when they weren’t leaning. Because of the guy in the pic, I couldn’t see our goal for most of the game if I sat normally in my seat. He had a huge melon.

Their main concourse is so crowded it is hard to walk through pre- and post game. I’m guessing it’s the same during intermission.

Club level concourse was crowded, too. It wasn’t as bad as the first level, but still hard to get anywhere. Lucky the beer, food and facilities were all nearby. VC’s [Verizon Center’s] concourses are spacious compared to Bell Center’s.

Their fans were all pretty nice, though largely they ignored us. I certainly never felt intimidated by them and didn’t sense animosity like one might in Philly or Jersey or even in VC when the teams like the Pens/Buffalo come to town. There was very little mocking like you might get in other places.

The guy at customs was shocked when I told him I was coming to see the game. He asked which team I was a fan of. For a second, I thought he wasn’t going to let me into the country. I should have asked him to put an immigration stamp on my ticket.