Habs News: Thoughts on Montreal Canadiens Start Time, Bell Centre, Brett Kulak Contract, Marc Bergevin

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — As the Stanley Cup Final between the Bruins and the Blues set to begin on Monday night, Habs fans all around the world will be cheering for St.Louis to win their first championship, or should I say cheering against Boston? It always brings pain to Canadiens fans when any of their rivals have success.

Earlier Start Times

On Tuesday, the Canadiens announced that they will standardize their home game starts to 7 pm. Eastern Time (ET) as of next season. Traditionally, the weekday home games began at 7:30 pm ET and 7 pm. ET on Saturdays.

According to France Margaret Belanger, executive vice president, commercial and corporate affairs of the Montreal Canadiens, “A recent study done with our season ticket holders confirmed that it would be advantageous to move up the start time for games by 30 minutes on weeknights, which in turn allows for an earlier return home afterwards. Also according to the study, this measure will benefit the general public who wish to catch games on television or on the radio with their families.”

The organization also cited that the National Hockey League is trending towards 7 pm. local starts. If keeping up with the league is the objective of the team, we should expect many other changes in the organization going forward, but I doubt that will happen.

There was mixed reaction by fans to the announcement on social media. Some fans were happy for reasons that made sense to them, and others were upset for their own valid reasons. I’m in the group that wasn’t supportive of this decision.

From a business perspective, this was an excellent decision. Season ticket holders are important for the team as they are the organization’s best customers. If they want an earlier start time, they should get it. It’s the revenue that they generate that’s the primary source of revenue that the owners and the players split. The customer is always right!

The media covering the games at the Bell Centre are ecstatic because they get to finish work earlier, and have less pressure to meet publication deadlines. Don’t count on any bad press about the start time by the beat reporters. And I totally get that point of view. When I’m in the press box at Place Bell for the Laval Rocket games, I would prefer 7 pm. puck drops instead of the current 7:30 pm. start time on weekdays.

It is also good news for the broadcasters as they will have the game earlier into their prime time slots, which means higher ratings and higher ad revenue. I doubt that they were disappointed when they found out about the news.

The younger fans will get to watch 30 more minutes of their favourite team on school nights before their parents send them to bed. It is a win for the future generation of the fans!

When the players have to travel immediately after the game to head to the site of their next road game, they will get to leave 30 minutes earlier and get to bed to earlier in their hotel room. It is another win for the organization, even though typically there would be no practice the following morning in those situations.

Not Everyone Wins

As mentioned earlier, the number one priority of the organization is the fan that buys a ticket to watch the game at the Bell Centre. Let me put myself in the shoes of the fan, who isn’t a season ticket holder, who works a nine-to-five job and has bought a ticket to the game. If the ticket holder doesn’t work in downtown Montreal, they would need to head straight to the Bell Centre, if they want to have a chance to watch warm ups at 6:30 pm. It is even worse for the ticket holder coming from a suburb in the Greater Montreal Area.

And you can forget about eating somewhere before entering the arena. Oh wait, you can purchase food at the Bell Centre. It is an experience that the Geoff Molson promised to improve at the end of the 2017-18 season. It is another win for the organization, but a loss for the fan who won’t get to live the full experience of attending the game in person.

The earlier start time will also mean less time for ticket holders to visit a restaurant or bar in the area before the game. I don’t expect the downtown bar owners to be happy.

I can hear some of you are thinking right now, that these fans that can’t make it on time for the earlier start, should just purchase tickets for a Saturday game. It is a fair point, but I would also like to remind you that the Canadiens announced premium pricing for certain games a few years back. Most of the premium games are on Saturday nights. That is another win for the organization.

Other Time Zones

Not all Habs fans live in the Greater Montreal Area. With the team’s rich history, there are fans all over the world. For any fan outside North America, the change in the start time shouldn’t be a significant as it’s already a bad time.

For fans in the Central and Pacific time zones, who have up to a three hour time difference, an earlier start time should make it harder for them to watch their team. Typically, the fans in these time zones need to subscribe to an additional TV or streaming package to have the ability to watch their favourite team.

At least the season ticket holders are happy.

Kulak Contract Extension

On Saturday, the Canadiens announced that they signed Brett Kulak to a three-year contract, $1.85 million average annual value. Kulak was acquired via trade on October 1st from Calgary in return for Matt Taormina and Rinat Valiev.

Kulak started the season with the Laval Rocket where he collected 11 points in 19 games. He was playing on the first defensive pairing and on the top power play unit. Kulak was recalled by Montreal on November 22nd and was given the assignment to be Shea Weber‘s defensive partner for a three week period.

In 57 games with the Canadiens, Kulak put up 17 points on the board playing on average 17:51 per game. I think Kulak looked at his best this season when he was paired with Jeff Petry on the second unit and we saw him regularly support the team in the offensive zone.

I think that it was a good value for the new contract. That being said, the left defensive side which was a weakness this season still needs to be improved in the off-season.

By Chris G., Senior Writer
All Habs Hockey Magazine
Copyright © 2019 Rocket Sports

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