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In all seriousness, if you lived a few years in Montreal youd get the idea.
For one, its the only (major) sports team Montreal has, so all our attention, even in the summer, is directed towards the Habs
theyre obviously the most historic and winningest franchise in hockey, which is a big part of it (similar to the Yankees and Celtics)
they take the time and effort to put on amazing spectacles such as opening night and number retirements, as theyre taken very seriously
practically all our sports media is 95% Habs talk (24/7 english and french radio, RDS (french TSN), TVA sports)
we sell out practically every game 21000+, even during long frustration droughts and rebuilds (unlike other cities who only go when their team is winning Cups like Chicago and Detroit)
the city's buzz and excitement during playoff runs such as 2021 are bigger than most actual Cup winners (see Kucherov's infamous quote). Low key sports bars have to take reservations.... Hell, I was at game 6 in 2002 when Montreal (7th seed) eliminated Boston (2nd seed) in the 1st round, youd swear we had just won the Cup seeing how we celebrated afterwards.
There are more Habs fans in OTHER Canadian cities than any other team (mostly for historic reasons). Youll hear loud cheers for the Habs whether theyre in: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, or Toronto.... Last draft was in Las Vegas of all cities, and the biggest cheer BY FAR was when Celion Dion said Ivan Demidov's name. By far.
Id even say this FORUM and THREAD is a pretty good indication too of how passionate the fanbase is.
Look Im not saying Leafs or Nucks fans dont love their team as much, but in Montreal its a religion.... With that comes a lot of bad apples and idiot homers, I wont deny that at all. Just goes to show.