Everyone knows that Montreal loves its sports teams. There is so much history in the city and we have celebrated many championships over the decades. But things have gone a little quiet on that front for the last few years. There have been some close encounters – but nothing to show for it.
Even though we still have three major league pro sports teams representing this great city, most online sports betting sites don’t have them winning anything soon. But could the gambling experts be wrong? We’ve taken a look at the teams to see where our next championship will come from.
Montreal Canadiens
The Habs are one of, if not the, most successful sporting franchises of all time. One of the Original Six in the NHL and still the one with the most Stanley Cup triumphs. But things are not looking too good this season. At the time of writing the Canadiens sit bottom of the Atlantic Division – and only the hapless Columbus Blue Jackets have a worse record in the whole of the Eastern Conference.
It is plain to see that the Habs are in the middle of a rebuild now. The postseason can be forgotten about this year and fans will hope that some good players will be brought in before the trade deadline. There have been injuries – and a tough schedule – but this Canadiens team isn’t good enough right now. The good news is that it has still shown a never-say-die attitude and there is a good core of young players. The future may look bright but there will not be a championship anytime soon.
Montreal Alouettes
So if hockey fans are not going to be celebrating, can we expect more from the football team? The short answer is probably no. True, the franchise made the playoffs for the third consecutive season, after a long pre-COVID postseason drought. But there was a lot of activity off the field that didn’t scream stability.
Hiring Jason Maas has not entirely calmed the nerves of the Alouettes fans. This is not a guy with a particularly impressive record and he comes in off the back of a season where the team were at least enjoyable to watch. He may do well, but there doesn’t seem to be movement forward with his appointment. There seems to be a lot of work to do to make Montreal a championship-winning team and a bad start again could pose real problems to those plans.
Will Montreal fans be celebrating this year?
CF Montreal
We would probably be tipping CF Montreal to be the city’s best chance of a championship if it was not for the many changes at the club in the offseason. Last year was the best ever since joining Major League Soccer in 2012. A third place overall finish in the regular season may have been followed by a disappointing quarter final exit to NYCFC, but Champions League soccer was an exhilarating experience.
Beating Santos Laguna of Liga MX in the round of 16 was a momentous occasion – and the loss to Cruz Azul in the quarterfinals should not be considered a failure. But now there has been a lot of upheaval at the Saputo Stadium and fans will want to be reassured that there will be some new arrivals to make up for the exodus of talent.
Alistair Johnston signing for Celtic and Ismael Kone leaving for Watford are just signs that the club is improving. But they will be missed, as will the veteran midfielder Victor Wanyama. Add to that a new head coach arriving, in the form of Hernan Losada, and there are a lot of questions over next season.
Montreal: City of Champions?
There seems to be a lot of uncertainty across the three major league sports teams in the city. New coaches bring new ways of playing, so CF Montreal and the Alouettes may look completely different when we see them next. The Canadiens, on the other hand, will take a while to challenge again.
That doesn’t mean that we won’t see success soon. It just means we might have to wait a little longer for another celebratory parade.
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