10,000 to sit behind the Maple Leafs bench tonight

The Wait is Over! The wait is over.

Tonight, the Canadiens kick off their 2024-25 season with a home game against their Toronto sworn enemies, the Maple Leafs. With everything that happened in the last pre-season game between the two teams (Tavares, Laine, Reinbacher, Paré and Xhekaj), the fact that the Leafs won both pre-season games between the two teams, the presence of a guy like Craig Berube behind the Toronto bench and the many dirty tricks handed out to Lane Hutson the other night, you can expect a lot of action tonight.

I also expect the pre-game ceremonies to be much better than last year’s, but that’s another subject…

The Habs had a very tough pre-season, losing four straight games to close out the camp and being unable to find the back of the net on the powerplay. All this while conceding a lot of goals both shorthanded and on the power play!

Will the Canadiens be able to match the talent of the Maple Leafs tonight at the Bell Centre? Do we really have a team capable of being in the mix?

Even if the answers to these questions are hard to come by this morning, and the buzz has gone down a (big) notch following Patrik Laine’s injury, enthusiasm for this first regular game is still very high. You can see it at the box office…

I shopped for a pair of tickets for tonight’s game a few minutes ago. The results of my search?

Official Canadiens site: two tickets were available NOT FOR SALE at $350 tx inc. (for the pair). But we’re talking about tickets in the last row with the wall in section 427…

The cheapest ticket in the Reds, it was $399 around 10:00 this morning.

A ticket on the edge of the strip was still available for the modest sum of $875.

Tickets were available from $153.51 via certified resale authorized by the club. And it went all the way up to $2,975 a ticket!

On Billets.ca, tickets ranged from $171.31 (all inclusive) in the pit to $2,956 for two tickets in the Reds.

StubHub, meanwhile, offered individual tickets ranging in price from $163 (all-inclusive) to $10,106 (section 124 behind the Maple Leafs bench). I’d like to think you’ve got a great view of the Centre Bell’s brand-new giant screen…

What’s up, world?

It’s expensive to rent a seat in that arena.

(Credit: Getty Images)

Note that I can get tickets for tomorrow night’s Canadiens vs Bruins game in Boston for $135 Canadian… and to sit behind the Bruins bench, it would “only” cost me $499. A game Cayden Primeau is likely to play, by the way…

There’s something broken in the Canadiens’ business model. Broken for the fans, but cr*sically interesting for the Habs Group, I must admit…

Paying so much money for a team that just had 55, 68 and 76-point seasons is beyond comprehension. Even if the club improves, I think it’s more likely to draft in the top five again in June than make the playoffs…

No, HDTV hasn’t killed the need to attend events in person.

Will you be watching the Habs game tonight? If so, how? In person, on your TV (legally) or on a dodgy stream?