Canadiens embrace past, look to bright future during emotional home opener

MONTREAL – The Montreal Canadiens' strong present and promising future were blended Tuesday with a solemn reflection on a player of their past, a 6-4 home-opening loss to the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes lifting the 2026-27 hockey curtain in this city.

With 24 Stanley Cup banners hanging over Bell Centre ice, joined by 15 numbers that were worn by 18 Hall of Fame players, the Canadiens figuratively lifted the roof off their 30-year-old arena to begin their 109th NHL season.

The Hurricanes provided the occasion-spoiling opposition to snap the Canadiens' four-game home opener win streak, having been Montreal's most recent kill-joy visitor in last May's Eastern Conference Final.

The 20,962 fans at Bell Centre can't say they didn't get their money's worth, what with 10 goals, 30 penalty minutes, special teams aplenty and two leads for the home team before Carolina scored three straight, surrendered one late to give the Canadiens tantalizing life, then salted it away with an empty-net goal.

"You can't turn pucks over against that team," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said, his team charged with 19 giveaways. "You've got to keep the puck on the move, go get it. ... You can't get cute through the neutral zone with them. They reload fast. They stand. It's a well-oiled machine. Too many turnovers, for sure."

The stage is set for the Canadiens' 2026-27 home-opener against the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

On the scoreboard, Canadiens players creatively introduced the equipment, training and medical staff. With 22 youth players from Hockey-Quebec on the ice, that organization celebrating its 50th anniversary, the roster then skated out one by one to cheers that triggered volume warnings on a smart watch.

But all of that paled next to the welcome given to St. Louis, a thunderous standing ovation clearly moving the coach who twice patted his heart in appreciation.

The energy ebbed for just a moment during a respectful silence for late 1993 Stanley Cup-winning defenseman Lyle Odelein, who had died four days earlier at age 58.

But then the fun began with a five-goal first period, the Canadiens showing flashes of the so-called firewagon hockey that was a signature of their free-wheeling championship teams of the 1950s, '60s and '70 to take a 3-2 lead into the first intermission.

Rookie Yvan Cournoyer on the cover of a 1965 Montreal Forum Sports Magazine, and as the Canadiens' ceremonial Bell Centre torch-bearer before Game 3 of the 2026 Eastern Conference First Round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Typical of a home opener, the team's alumni lounge was packed with former players and their guests: Guy Carbonneau strolled in wearing his Hall of Fame Honoured Member blazer, and had a quick reply when asked jokingly whether he'd paid for it.

"With my hips and my knees and my shoulders," he said with a grin.

Players included former Canadiens Alumni Association president Rejean Houle, joined by David Savard, Stephane Richer, Chris Nilan, Murray Wilson, Mathieu Dandenault, Stephane Quintal, Dave Morissette and Serge Boisvert. Former team president Pierre Boivin also dropped in.

Present at least in spirit was four-time 1970s Stanley Cup winner Yvon Lambert, the unofficial mayor of the Alumni Lounge who watched from home, still recovering from August surgery to repair a broken hip and femur suffered in a fall.

Yvon Lambert, in an iPad photo, at his usual table in the Canadiens' Alumni Lounge before the team's home-opener. Portraits of some of the Canadiens' captains are in the background.

The most decorated man in the house was 10-time Stanley Cup champion Yvan Cournoyer, the Canadiens' legendary "Roadrunner" figuring that this was his 62nd consecutive home opener: 15 as a Hall of Fame-bound player between 1964-78 at the Forum, then as a distinguished alumnus for 17 more through 1995 in that building and another 30 at Bell Centre since 1996.

That puts him in skates or a seat at 56 percent of every home opener in Canadiens history, surely a franchise record.

"You're a little bit nervous for the first game, but when it starts, it's like another game," Cournoyer said of opening night, both as a player and a spectator. "You know it's going to be a long season, and this is just the start."

The Canadiens could have used the power-play skill of Cournoyer, who ranks second on his team all-time with 152 man-advantage goals. Twice on Tuesday over 1:38, Montreal couldn't cash 5-on-3 situations.

Expectations are sky-high for this year's Canadiens, a roster only mildly tweaked from that which went three rounds in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs before they were blown away by the eventual-champion Hurricanes, falling in five games.

Carolina Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour jumps onto Bell Centre ice before the Canadiens' 2007 home-opener. Brind'Amour had an assist in his team's 3-2 win.

Montreal's only previous home opener against Carolina was a 3-2 loss in 2007, then-captain and current Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour playing a team-high 22:25 with one assist and five shots on goal.

The Canadiens' greatest living alumnus, Cournoyer served as his team's ceremonial torch-bearer before Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"The players this year understand those expectations," he said. "After last season, they know the city is not just hoping but expecting they'll do well."

Cournoyer is indeed the voice of experience. Four of his 10 championships were won consecutively as captain his final four seasons from 1976-79, four in five seasons coming between 1965-69. Today, at age 82, he remains a hugely popular ambassador of the franchise, making appearances on behalf of the team at games and in the community well beyond.

The puck unseen, Yvan Cournoyer scores on Toronto goalie Gary Smith at the Montreal Forum on Dec. 21, 1966. Used exclusively by coach Toe Blake on the power-play, Cournoyer scored three goals on three shots for his first career hat trick. It was the NHL's first power-play hat trick since Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau did so on Nov. 7, 1955.

Cournoyer was prolific in the 15 home openers he played, scoring 30 points (17 goals, 13 assists). He had a 1973 hat trick against the Vancouver Canucks, four two-goal games and a four-point night (two goals, two assists) against the Detroit Red Wings in 1967. His 15 home opener goals are the most scored by any player in franchise history.

On the road, Cournoyer scored nine points (five goals, four assists) in 15 season openers.

"I guess I liked the Forum," he joked. "I played for the Junior Canadiens in that building (from 1961-64), our dressing room just down the hall from the Canadiens' room. With the big team, when we opened the door, we were almost on the ice."

The Canadiens now have a home-opening record of 62 wins, 30 losses, 15 ties and two losses beyond regulation time – one in overtime, one in a shootout. They have scored 373 goals and allowed 260, 14 of their wins by way of shutout, Montreal blanked five times by a visitor.

A Dec. 28, 1917 newspaper report about the Canadiens' adventures trying to get back to Montreal for their home opener, and a Dec. 30 story following the Canadiens' 9-2 win against Toronto.

Naturally, Cournoyer's retired No. 12 figured in Tuesday's storyline. The Canadiens faced off with a Bell Centre home opener record of 12 wins, 12 losses, three ties and two losses beyond regulation.

In unsuccessfully seeking their 13th victory, there was a thread to that number, too. The Canadiens' historic first NHL home opener in 1917, at Montreal (Westmount) Arena, saw the team aboard rail coach No. 13 headed home from Toronto two days before their Dec. 29 game against the future Maple Leafs, then known as the Arenas.

That overnight trip was delayed 15 hours by a freight-train collision ahead of them, then their own locomotive jumping the tracks once they got rolling again. The Canadiens were already seething, beaten 7-5 by Toronto on Dec. 26, but they gained a measure of revenge in the return date, clobbering their visitor 9-2. Four days later, their arena burned to the ground.

The Canadiens didn't tempt fate on Tuesday with digitally generated flames as part of their pregame ceremony. Indeed, the only disaster on the night would be the Hurricanes, who blew into town and left full value for their entertaining victory.

Top photo: Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis is welcomed by Bell Centre fans before the team's 2026-27 home opener on Oct. 6, 2027.