Habs Unite Montreal

Here's an excellent, must-read article courtesy of Alexander Panetta of The Canadian Press:

It was a meaningless mid-November game whose only memorable play occurred in the stands, yet decades later it still illustrates more than any Stanley Cup-winning heroics what the Montreal Canadiens have meant to their city.

It was Nov. 15, 1976, and turbulent political tides were rocking Quebec. The province would make international news that night by electing, for the first time, a separatist government.

Inside the old Montreal Forum, it was eerily silent.

"And when they stood and cheered, thousands of others who had always stood and cheered with them stayed seated and did not cheer," remembered Ken Dryden in his book, The Game.

"At that moment, people who had sat together for many years in the tight community of season-ticket holders learned something about each other that they had not known before. The last few minutes of the game were very difficult. The mood in the Forum had changed."

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