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Montreal is a city often split between English and French languages and cultures, but one thing that almost all residents can get behind is cheering on their beloved hockey team, the Canadiens.
This isn't just your run-of-the-mill, sports-crazed city, however. The love of hockey here runs much deeper. It's tied to both the history of the game's creation as well as the identity of the Quebecois people, who've come to see their hometown team as a powerful symbol of their nationhood, even though they're still officially part of Canada.
On the latest episode of Far From Home -- which I originally reported for Here and There, a Canadian Geographic travel podcast — I travel to Montreal to meet a hockey superfan who’s assembled a museum of team memoriabilia in the basement of his suburban home.
I join longtime Canadiens season ticketholder Mario Lambert and his friends François and Jean-Pierre (pictured at the top of this page) for a game in Montreal’s Bell Centre arena, amid 20,000 cheering fans.
And to truly understand the sport, I even sign up for a personal hockey lesson!
Your intrepid reporter doing anything for a story!
Don’t worry if you’re not a hockey fan, cause I’m totally not one either! I think you’ll still find this episode interesting, cause although it initially seem like a simple sports story, it’s actually about something much more meaningful!
Thanks to Liz Beatty and Black Cabin Studios for permission to share this story with the Far From Home audience. Thanks also to Clark McLeod, Mario Lambert, Emma Jacobs, Tourism Montreal, Destination Canada, and Excellent Ice.
I’ll be back in a few weeks with a story about how the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID are affecting people around the world.