I'm not a sociologist, but I guess that the fact that the Habs is now the only professional team in Quebec (The Expos and the Nordiques are gone) have to count for something (OK, we also have the Impact and the Als, but they do not create the same interest as the Habs).

The media play a lot also. The local sport station had a 30 minutes pre-game last week for the Sens-Ducks game. They talked about the game for the first 5 minutes and spend nearly the rest of the show to talk about the new contract of the Habs defensemen Markov.

However, having a winning team today is a very hard task, specially in Canada because of the money exchange rate. With all the teams today, the competition is very rough and you'll have a hard time signing good players. The media pressure here is so hard that many players (specially Quebecers) don't want to play for the Habs :( That's too bad because I would prefer a less competitive team composed in majority of Quebecers than a better team but with players I can't identify myself with.

>Wow - what changed to make it that way?
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>I left Montreal 25 years ago, but until that time there would be no sell-out if the Habs were losing. In those days they basically had to earn every full house they got.
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>I was always of the opinion that it was exactly that characteristic that made sure they always had winning teams. Given recent history and your statement I am now more sure than ever about that.