Last season, the Canadiens finished 32nd and last in the league. This season, it wasn’t much better, finishing 28th. I don’t know about you, but it seemed harder to survive the end of this season than the last. Between the arrival of Martin St-Louis and the deaths of Guy Lafleur and Mike Bossy, the end of the season passed almost like a gust of wind. But this season was one long, interminable agony. The guys had given up, and it showed. 21,078 times. 21,078, as in the average number of people who attended our not-so-glorious games this season. In spite of the rebuild, fans turned out in force to cheer on their favorite team, despite the fact that the show was… non-existent! Proof, in a way, that fans have bought into the rebuild plan and the defeats that come with it, contrary to whatPatrick Huard told BPM Sports. We bought into the plan so much that, despite an unenviable place in the standings, we were the ones who filled their team’s arena seats the most, as reported by Sports Business Journal.
Senators, Canadiens and Flames among biggest gainers in NHL regular-season attendance, acc to data compiled by @SBJ. Montreal atop NHL with 21,078/game and league attendance overall was up a reported 7.9%. pic.twitter.com/ffr5UMwCSS
– Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) April 17, 2023
The CH’s closest pursuers are the Carolina Hurricanes, with an average attendance of 19,526 for the bunch of jerks. Between the Habs and the Hurricanes, that’s an average of 1,552 fewer spectators, but the Habs are a giant with feet of clay whose reign could come to an abrupt end. A rebuild Sport is the business of hope, and it makes you wonder if one day the Habs will stretch the sauce to the point where hope turns to despair. If that happens, we won’t be flocking to the big game. Already, we could see at the end of the season that the seats weren’t as full as they used to be. You could feel it too. But since tickets are sold in advance, the statistics were not affected. However, that day may not be so far off. When I saw this list, I couldn’t help but glance at the numbers for the Arizona Coyotes. They compiled an average of 4,600 spectators per game for a total attendance of 188,600. That’s 4.6 times less than the 864,180 fans who passed through the turnstiles at the Bell Centre. Just think, to match the Habs’ season, the Coyotes need almost 5! I don’t understand how such a situation is accepted by the players’ association. After all, it’s a significant amount of revenue that the league is letting slip away, and by extension, that the players don’t have access to through revenue sharing. It’s the kind of thing I’ll never understand, I guess…
In Brief
– The Habs’ best moments of the season, in 3 min 20.
Our favorite moments of the 2022-2023 season, we spent them with you #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/GpgxpRLVPd
– Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) April 18, 2023
This from @camcharronyvr is worth brushing up on, he says as Canes-Isles has looked more like a special teams practice at times than a playoff game. https://t.co/OPYGjXU2nj –
Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) April 18, 2023
David Pastrnak opened the scoring for the @NHLBruins with his 31st career playoff goal, tied with Alex Ovechkin for the sixth most among all skaters since he made his postseason debut in 2017. #StanleyCup#NHLStats: https://t.co/lOcAvP9k0Q pic.twitter.com/tpzFDEyfPz
– NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 18, 2023
‘Pressure is a privilege’: Leafs confident ahead of high-stakes series
MORE: https://t.co/XsaOdDbx80 pic.twitter.com/CzZmLeAY4Q– TSN (@TSN_Sports) April 18, 2023