Liam Maloney is a photographer who specializes in editorial and long-term documentary work. Though he travels the world for work, Montreal will always be home for him and we were thrilled to hear that he was interested in spending a day shooting some outdoor hockey games for us.

For these photos, Maloney visited rinks in Verdun, the Plateau and Little Italy. If you’re looking for a complete list of Montreal’s outdoor and indoor ice, make sure you check out the great Patiner Montreal website, which not only maps out all of the city’s rinks, but offers interactive information on ice conditions, hours of availability and more. Game on.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Number 9, Mr. Rocket Richard. The first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season. Legend.
Crowds have been going wild for the Montreal Canadiens since 1909, mostly at the historic Forum located on Atwater between Saint-Catherine and Maisonneuve. After the completion of the Bell Centre in 1996, the Forum was converted into an entertainment complex complete with a movie theatre, sports bar, comedy club, restaurants and shopping.
Carey Price, cool as a cucumber.
The Habs slick one past the opposing goalie in one svelte swoop.

Brad Staubitz knocks his helmet off during some scrappy ice dancing.

A Hab, a Nordique and a Ref walk into a sports bar… Known as the “Battle of Quebec: Good Friday Massacre”, this giant brawl lasted the equivalent of an entire period and ended with over 250 minutes of penalties.

Get your gameface on and get ready for some hockey! Head down to your local sport bar and enjoy the game with your fellow fans. The most rowdy/fun crowds will probably be hitting up bars in the Crescent Street area due to its proximity to the Bell Centre. Check out Stations des Sports, MVP, Sharx, Ziggy’s, or have a total throwback moment and go to the sports bar in the Forum! Check out when and where the Habs will be playing here.

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Here, therefore, is a list of my Top 10 places in Montreal to eat excellent food and watch the game…

1. Ye Olde Orchard: My favourite place in the city to watch any sport and eat. You can order anything from Sri Lankin curry to Irish stew or a brilliant medium rare burger with sweet potato fries. They have HDTVs for every angle and the service is just perfect.
2. Le Crapaud: A tad out of the way, but worth the taxi ride. They know hockey, they know food and they know how to party. You’ll find me here a few times a season.
3. The Factory bar: Right on the Main, this place will serve you a burger (pictured above) that might take you the whole game to finish. HDTVs are everywhere and the venue has a great atmosphere for watching the Habs.
4. Brasserie Rachel Rachel: Montreal-famous and a huge hockey fan, Bob Le Chef runs this place like no other in the city. He develops each menu item with a special touch. The upbeat venue is about the party, the awesome food and hockey.
5. Les Plaisirs Coupables: Montreal-popular chef Jean-François Plante dedicates his restaurant to a menu of guilty pleasures. Have a Foie Gras and truffle’s oil poutine as you watch the game on their many HDTVs without sound.
6. m:brgr: A popular burger joint in Montreal, this place shows each game. The burgers are juicy and just the way you like them. The Habs themselves frequent the place on off nights.
7. Le BOucan: If you’re a meat-eating, BBQ-loving sports fan, book your night here. They have the most amazing BBQ and have a screen or two showing the game. The perfect night out.
8. Brutopia: Despite technically not being a resto, they have an amazing roast beef sandwich and a few TVs for the game. As an added bonus, some say they have the best home-brewed beers in town. I go here often with my friends.
9. Lucille’s Oyster Dive: A small place with an awesome seafood menu (pictured below). With a few TVs over the bar, this place is ideal for watching the game as you take down a few oysters.
10. Vieux Port Steakhouse: If you’re looking for something a bit more steak frites, this steak house in the Old Port has a special room just for watching the game as you eat.

Born and raised in Montreal, Na’eem Adam is a guest blogger with nothing but food and the Habs on his mind. You can find more info on restaurants that show the hockey games on his blog, Le Méchant Mangeur.

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Taverne Normand is a favourite local Plateau haunt, with a raucous but cozy feel, where sport is king (“Là ou le sport est Roi”). Each table is assigned a player’s number and if your guy scores, Normand himself brings a round of free shots to the table. (1550 Mont-Royal East, 514-525-8748)

Chez Serge offers hipster denizens a way to avoid sacrificing clubbing over hockey, marrying the two. During ads and intermissions, it’s all DJ tunes, light shows and pole dancing. Oh, and don’t miss the TV on the men’s washroom ceiling! (5301 St-Laurent, 514-270-3262)

Champs Bar & Restaurant is a classic sports bar located on St-Laurent that’s as packed with customers as it is with sport paraphernalia. There’s a big hall with banquet tables on the top floor, so you can bring your team. (3956 St-Laurent, 514-987-6444)

Le Drugstore is where lesbians and gays turn a queer eye on the hockey guys. A behemoth bar on 4 levels, this gay village hotspot offers plenty of distraction to compliment your hockey watching: pool tables, a hair salon, ice cream parlour, and even post-game drag shows! (1366 Sainte-Catherine, 514-524-1960)

La Cage Aux Sports is the mother of all Quebec sport bar chains. The downtown Bell Centre location is next to the action. With two levels, 70 television sets, and 4 giant screens you feel like you’re in the game. Plus, the menu features… a wine list! (395 Rue Lemoyne, 1212 de la Gauchetière, 514-288-1115)

Rachel Rachel: Brasserie Rachel Rachel is the hot new place to watch the game on the Plateau. Headed up by “anarchic” chef and rabid Habs fan, Bob Le Chef, this place serves the perfect food (and drinks) for the game and gets absolutely wild when the Canadiens are playing. (500 Rachel East, 514-524-4446)

Not only does Café Olympico serve up the winningest café in Montreal, it also provides an amicable atmosphere for multi-sport carousing. (124 Rue St-Viateur W.)

La Station des sports offers sports fanatics 20 screens and 4L pitchers are only 18$ (pitchers at 4$)! (2051 Ste-Catherine W., 514-931-5559)

Located in the West end, Claremont Café is a hopping bistro run by locals fixated on watching and playing hockey. Try the house special: duck poutine! (5032 Sherbrooke West, 514-483-1557)

Not everyone can agree on watching hockey? Next to Concordia University in the basement of the Faubourg Shopping Center, Sharx is a sports bar, pool hall and bowling alley, all in one. (1606 Ste. Catherine W., 514-934-3105)

Every corner in Montreal features a local dive you can call home – at least for a one-night hockey-watching stand. Bistro 1815 is one example, but go ahead, try your luck! Any bar with a TV will be tuned in to Habs hockey. (1815 Laurier, 514-521-6125)

Photo: Eric Kearns

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The Tricolore Au Feminin, now in its 5th year, is an annual charity hockey game played by the female staff of the Montreal Canadiens, the Bell Centre and Evenko. There were plenty of big names in attendance- Canadiens defenceman James Wisniewski signed some autographs, while former Hab Gilbert Delorme coached one of the teams, alongside Olympic medallists Marianne St-Gelais, Charles Hamelin and Tania Vicent, though it was pretty clear that many of the kids in attendance were most star-struck by an appearance from the one-and-only Youppi.

By the end of the incredibly fun night, the event had raised $18,000 for the Children’s Foundation, which directs the money it raises to over 400 charitable endeavours across Quebec. Really, there’s only one thing to add to such a great, positive situation….

GO HABS GO!!!

And a very special shout-out to the great Montreal band, Winter Gloves, who let us their new song, Dancing My Heart Out, in the video. Thanks guys!

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A few hours before Game 2 between the Montreal Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers, we asked a few Montréal luminaries, artists, bloggers and all-around cool cats what the Habs mean to them.

Andy Nulman, andynulman.com

“After the 7th game victory over the Pens, a friend told me: “I was at the Bell Centre and saw it live on screen with 21,000 screaming fans!  Can you top that?”  And I said: “Yeah, as a 19-year-old sports journalist, I was at the Forum in 1979 when the Habs beat the Rangers and won the cup, and then I was in the dressing room and watched as Gilles Lupien poured champagne from the cup onto Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s head, much to the non-delight of his RCMP bodyguards.” All he could reply was “Go Habs Go!” My sentiment exactly!”

Andrew Rose, Secret City Records

“I’m a native Anglo Montrealer and I was 12 when the Habs last won the cup. I grew up a few blocks away from the Forum and saw a fair number of games in the 93 playoffs. I couldn’t care less about pro sports in general, but wager I can go toe-to-toe with anyone in this town when it comes to the ins and outs of hockey and the Habs. I don’t miss many games through the course of the season. All I can say is, the more you’ve been paying attention the past 15 years or so, the more gratifying the current story is. The team is winning for a lot of reasons, but I think the number one reason is that everyone playing believes in the team and believes they can win. A good attitude and hard work go a long way in the playoffs. Don’t get me wrong, Halak and our special teams are a big reason, too. But you need that extra little magic touch to really win, and this is the first Habs team I can remember since 93 that has that. Now if we can score a goal on the Flyers…”

Jeff Waye, Ninja Tune

“Ninja Tune hockey nerd levels got to the point where I was live blogging the game via text message to Poirier while he was on stage DJ’ing in France. I really hope the airhorn sounded with every GOAL! text….As great as The Habs looked in Game 7 against Pittsburgh, I wondered: “hey Malkin, how much money do you get to pass to a phantom 6th player on the ice?” And Moen’s 4th goal, man, the defense for The Claremont (Cafe) Cougars hockey team could have stopped that! (And ps- If PK Subban wants to do a guest verse on a track, I’ve got a record label.)”

Aaron David Fraser, Claremont Café

“I can’t help but feel torn. On one hand, I love the tear the Habs are on. On the other, I am in the restaurant business and a Habs playoff run is NOT good for business. Good for delivery food and sports bars, but the further the Habs get into the playoffs, the less people show up at the restaurants in Montreal. Go Habs Go- just finish them quick. This game seven nonsense is only good for Geoff Molson!”

Vicki Hogarth, Askmen.com

“You have to show up about three hours before the game if you actually want to get a table at Verres Stérilisés (St-Hubert and Rachel) during the Playoffs. That’s not such a bad deal, when you consider that La Banquise — the best place in the city to get poutine — is about a block away, and the staff at Verres Stérilisés let customers bring their dinner to the bar. There’s really no better place in the Plateau to watch the game, thanks to the passionate nature of the locals who never miss a chance to support the Canadiens in their favourite neighbourhood haunt. In fact, you could keep score of the game without even being inside the bar, just by tallying up the cheering versus jeering sessions, which can be heard from about one-block radius. For me, when I’m rooting for the Canadiens, I’m not just cheering for my favourite team; I’m cheering for a city that I love and the unique people who live here, and being in a place like this- with its genuine spirit and oh-so reasonably priced beer- makes that moment so perfect.”

Daniel Seligman, Pop Montreal

“Game 7 vs. the Penguins: I was in Paris on a bizness trip/family vacashe, biting my nails all day in anticipation. Of course it was next to impossible to find anywhere to watch the game, especially with a 7-month-old daughter in tow, so the ever-reliable internet came in handy as we tuned into atdhe.net. The reception was choppy but Bob Cole’s voice was clear as day. Stayed up until 4am and celebrated quietly, knowing full well that a Footlocker near you was being wantonly ransacked. GO HABS GO!, bro.”

Martine St-Victor, Groupe Milagro

“For immigrants, hockey has always been one of the ways to integrate Canadian society. Born in Trois-Rivieres, I grew up oscillating between the Nordiques and the Canadiens, and then switched to a full allegiance to the Habs. My favourite images are those of kids of 2nd, 3rd or even 4th generation of immigrants sporting Habs jerseys. It gets me every time…I love how the Habs bring the City together. It doesn’t matter whether or not you follow sports: you must respect & recognize the Montreal Canadiens as a dynasty and pray to God, Allah or Buddha that we  bring home this year our 25th Stanley Cup.”

Lynn Habel, Tourisme Montréal

“The Montréal Canadiens are more than a sports team; since I was a kid, everyone I knew followed the Habs with more passion and fervor than a political campaign. The great names over the team’s history – Howie Morenz, Rocket Richard, Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy – all seemed to reflect the history and identity of Montréal and Québec. You know, the little guy fighting to make it in the big American league- and succeeding. Chez nous, hockey is a something to be shared with family and friends, complete with munchies, beer (or wine) and lots of colour commentary from the couch. Hockey nights are great excuses to invite friends, or to be invited, for supper and a soirée watching and talking over the game. During the play-offs, though, it gets serious. Meals are timed around games and the phone only rings during intermission. (Really, who would have the nerve to call during the game? Pfft.) And when we win, we really do feel like “Les Glorieux”.”

Jeremy Morris, Midnight Poutine

“This year’s Habs embody one of the age-old philosophies for success: set expectations so low for so long that when something finally goes right, it’s a momentous occasion. I try to live by this maxim everyday, so it is inspiring to see it play out so well for les boys. Go Habs Go.”

Nathaniel Schachter, Sid Lee

“I started watching the games sitting on the floor at Olympico in Mile End, basically under the pool table. It made my friend and I feel like we were backpacking through Europe. I don’t know exactly when it happened– maybe game 6 against the Capitals– but I just became a believer. Suddenly I was, like, we’re winning the cup and nobody can stop us! It was like a holy revelation. Now I insist on watching all the games under that awful pool table, convinced that we’ll lose if I watch it elsewhere. Thanks superstition! (PS- I watched Game 1 at home last night and we got slammed 6-0 by the flyers.)”

Jean-Aymeri de Magistris, Montreal State Of Mind

“I’m really happy for the Habs, but I’m 10 times more happy for the fans, being faithful fans for so many years. They have been very patient. Now they gave something real to be proud of! Hope the dream will not end against the Flyers and we can bring back the Stanley cup where it belongs, here in Montreal!…Maybe everyone in Canada can be in a Montreal state of mind!?”

Ian Kennedy, Tiger Distribution

“I always grew up around one uncle who would pretty much do anything for the Maple Leafs and for some reason I just was never really down with hockey. About 10 years ago I moved to Montreal and it was ON! It just clicked here and I’m stoked to be a Habs Fan! The only problem is now that I can afford season tickets, or any tickets for that matter, I have to pay 3 times the price to catch a game! So… if any Habs/Bell Center employees likes Scandinavian fashion and want to barter for tickets find me via are website…GO HABS GO!”

Jason Bajada, Jason Bajada

“The Habs are finally looking like a team of friends and it’s nice to see every player fill out a specific role. Halak is looking like a nerdy version of Ken Dryden. Cammalleri is scoring like it’s 1977 and he wants to destroy every record. Lapierre is bringing the tough and trash talk (not to mention scoring when it counts). And 21-year-old P.K. “superstar” Subban is filling in for, quite possibly, one of the best defensemen in the league (Markov) and doing an outstanding job. I’ve been watching most games at Café Olympico and the atmosphere is pure insanity and the coffee is dizzy delicious…Dare I say, in frenglish, It smells the cup!”

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You could say that podcasts are basically just radio shows, except with a radio show you’ve got to be near a radio at a certain time. Which is probably why most radio shows now offer a podcast option as well. With podcasts, you can stream the episode whenever you like or simply download it to your favorite portable device. Whether it’s music, sports, news or even burgers, check out some of these podcasts to get excited for your trip to Montreal or bring them with you as you explore the city…

Midnight Poutine podcast : Like the website that hosts it, this podcast is great mix of music, upcoming events and a couple bad jokes thrown in. The music they play is either from Montreal bands or out-of-town groups about to play the city and is almost always great.

Habs Inside/Out puckcast : Even if you’re not a Montreal Canadiens hockey fan, I strongly suggest downloading this “puckcast” before you get to Montreal. If only to know what the cabbie who drove you in from the airport, the waiter serving you dinner and the guy (or girl) you just met in the bar are talking to you about….

Daybreak podcast : As I said before, radio shows were quick to realize what a benefit podcasts could be to their audience. Daybreak covers local, national and international news mixed in with interesting interviews.

Zeke on the Air : The man who ran a great (and now lamentably closed) independent art gallery, Chris “Zeke” Hand is now in charge of a mini Montreal podcast empire. Besides the flagship art podcast (linked above), he also covers dance on Movement Museum and, in my personal favorite, everything you could ever want to know about burgers.

Discovering “The Main” : This podcast about the fascinating people and places that have made St-Laurent, aka The Main, such an integral part of Montreal is only available in French. But it’s so good you should consider learning French.

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