by Erica, Staff Writer and Fundraising Specialist, All Habs Hockey Magazine

MONTREAL, QC. — 24CH is at its best when there’s good news to share. This week, the team, its employees, its anthem singer and its owner all shined. It’s easy to love a team that wins at home and watch them follow that momentum. Here’s what we learned this week:

Writing about the game requires as much speed as playing it. Our All Habs team works very hard to give you news and game updates as they happen, but if possible, the Canadiens’ official website and social media team work even harder. In this episode, we met members of the web team responsible for the endless amounts of online content, Twitter updates, and HabsTV videos available through the team’s official online media. The episode follows Elise, better known to Habs fans on Twitter as ^ER, as she and her team live-tweet the official conference call that followed the trade that sent Travis Moen to Dallas in exchange for Sergei Gonchar. After that, the social media team prepares to provide Twitter updates on a game: not only live in-game updates, but photos, trivia, infographics, and links to video content to occupy followers at intermission. They aim to create an in-game experience that can fulfill fans no matter where they are or whether they’re able to watch games, and it looks like a team of nine people all over the Bell Centre is able to do just that.

Habs roll out the welcome mat. A segment focused on one of the Canadiens’ new anthem singers, recruited from the open auditions held this past September. Cherylyn Toca, a part-time student and gifted singer, recounted what led her to the opportunity to sing the national anthems during a preseason game and again during the regular season. She remembers seeing a cameraman give her dad the thumbs-up as she finished auditioning, and seeing it as a good sign. Anthem singers have their own pregame rituals; Toca’s includes yoga and rehearsal, before getting her hair done and heading to the Bell Centre for a technical rehearsal. At the Bell Centre, she appears nervous but is treated like an old pro, a part of the team. Maybe fans at the Bell Centre will hear her voice more often.

Equally welcome at the Bell Centre is new Canadien Sergei Gonchar. His welcome at the airport is modest, to say the least, but it’s a nice breather before he’s introduced to regular media scrums and a loud, dedicated, opinionated fanbase. Equipment manager Pierre Gervais is tasked with preparing Gonchar’s home and away jerseys as well as his locker “to make him feel at home.” Helping him to feel at home are his Russian teammates – we immediately cut to Gonchar and Andrei Markov chatting away in the locker room.

Big accomplishments will get you the Shiny Boxing Robe of Success. Nathan Beaulieu, keeper of the robe after his fight against Minnesota’s Stéphane Veilleux, awarded the Robe to Carey Price for shutting out the Winnipeg Jets. (In case you’re wondering, yes, Beaulieu did call it a “shutsy,” because his first language is hockey.) Fired up after a definitive victory over the Boston Bruins, the team gives Dale Weise a hero’s welcome in the locker room and awards him the Robe. He was the clear winner, anyway: he pulled off a Gordie Howe hat trick and his first NHL penalty shot and made it look easy. Weise’s performance in the following game, a hard-earned win over the Philadelphia Flyers, would have been enough to earn the Robe for a second game in a row. But he’s a team player, and credits all of his teammates for their contributions before awarding the Shiny Robe of Success to Sergei Gonchar to commemorate his 800th NHL point, and the episode ends on a happy note.

Best bits. The team’s Russian contingent talking on the ice (a lot, actually) to plan out their next plays; Geoff Molson talking about his mustache again; Michael Bournival training with conditioning coach Pierre Allard in order to be ready for his return to the ice.