Diehard Habs fans longing to cheer together again

Jim Taman is missing out on his favourite part of playoff hockey.

With his NHL team making an improbable run in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the founder of the Western Canada Montreal Canadiens Fan Club is used to getting together in one of his favourite places on Earth to watch a hockey game.

The clubhouse dressing room at Saskatoon’s Harold Latrace Arena has become something of a second home to Taman. It’s like a museum, meant to be a replica of the Habs’ old dressing room at the Montreal Forum.

Not being there for some of the most exciting games in recent memory hurts.

“Oh, you have no idea. It hurts. It hurts inside being the diehard Habs fans that we are,” he said. “It really hurts not being able to get together, not to be able to cheer together especially at this time when it means so much and everybody is excited.”

The Canadiens are set to play the first game of their third-round series against the Las Vegas Golden Knights on Monday evening. It’s the first time Montreal has advanced to the Stanley Cup semifinals since 2014.

After the Canadiens defeated the archrival Toronto Maple Leafs and then the Winnipeg Jets in a week’s span, Taman and the rest of the Canadiens fan base is eagerly awaiting how this next chapter of the playoffs will unfold.

Thanks to COVID-19, they will have to forgo the usual clubhouse supper during Canadiens playoffs games and instead confide in the group chat, discussing all the action between whistles.

“It is the ambience of the dressing room,” Taman said. “The fact that you’re in that atmosphere, you actually feel like you’re part of the team.”

Nearly every bit of memorabilia in the dressing room is autographed by the greats. Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur, even Patrick Roy — they’re all in there.

One of Taman’s favourite pieces is the selection of 25 game-used sticks from the Canadiens’ Stanley Cup-winning team in 1993, the last Canadian team to win it all.

“There’s so many stories with it now because so many of the players from the ’93 team have been in the dressing room. They’ll see the hockey sticks and they’ll say, ‘I don’t even have one! Can I have it?’ And I will not let it go,” Taman said with a chuckle.

For a typical playoff game, the doors open half an hour before puck drop as up to 80 people made up of members, families and friends roll in. Then, at the first intermission, it’s time for a feast to take in the rest of the game.

“It’s electric,” Taman said of the atmosphere at the clubhouse.

Just like his favourite team, there is plenty of tradition to go around.

“If the team needs a rally, then we put our helmets on backwards,” Taman said, offering an example. “When they sing the national anthem, we all stand and sing along.

“It’s like they say in life, little things mean a lot.”

As the Canadiens continue to beat the odds and survive in the playoffs, even some of Taman’s friends who typically cheer against the Habs are wishing him and the rest of the fan club well.

With nervous energy surrounding the first puck drop Monday, Taman wishes for nothing more than to be able to strike up a conversation and cheer with intense Canadiens fans who breathlessly watch every hit, save and shot that rings off the post.

“They’re on this magical run right now — and we’re not together,” Taman said. “It hurts.

“It lets you be there. It lets you be a part of it.”

Taman doesn’t need any extra incentive to cheer his team towards its first Stanley Cup final berth in 28 years, but prior to Monday’s puck drop, he was told by former Canadiens forward Garry Peters that if the Canadiens advance to the finals there will be a ticket waiting for Taman to watch a game in Montreal at the Bell Centre.

“Go Habs go,” Taman said.