Church in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. becomes unlikely Habs playoff watch hub

Fans watch the Montreal Canadiens play the Tampa Bay Lightning during NHL playoff hockey action in the Cathedral of Saint-Jean-l'Evangeliste in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., on Friday, April 24, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Edouard Desroches

SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU — The sound of singing rises up from the packed pews of St-Jean-l’Évangéliste Cathedral in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. But the congregation is dressed in blue, white and red Montreal Canadiens jerseys, and the song they’re singing isn’t a hymn but rather a chant that any sports fan will recognize: “Olé! Olé! Olé!”

Since the beginning of the NHL playoffs, hundreds of hockey fans have packed into the pews for raucous Habs watch parties in which they yell, cheer, and yes, pray for victory.

The director of content and communications for La Cargaison, the nonprofit multimedia organization behind the show, says the interest has exceeded expectations.

“People in Quebec and Canada gather together around hockey games -- it’s almost a religion, so we find it works wonderfully,” said Marjolaine Quintal.

The company has offices in the church, and has been putting on concerts and sound and light shows in the sanctuary for the last couple of years. A hockey match is not much different, Quintal says. “There’s ceremony, there’s decorum, there’s passion, there are turnarounds, and they’re places to gather as well.”

The game is shown on a 35-foot screen, while DJs pump up the crowd and lights are beamed on the historic church’s walls.

As a lineup stretched around the block ahead of Friday’s sold-out watch party, a fan dressed in a red priestlike garment invited fans to kneel in front of him to share a prayer that began with invoking the late Canadiens great Maurice “Rocket” Richard.

“Our rocket, who is in heaven, may your talent be shared,” began the man, who calls himself “St-Flanelle,” after a term used to refer to the team’s jersey, as well as the name of the event.

The man, whose real name is David Ouellet, said his “caricature” is all in good fun. “It’s to make people laugh,” he said.

Antoine Dubé, standing in line, said he came for the ambiance and to share the game experience with other people. He and several other attendees told The Canadian Press they weren’t regular churchgoers. All said they’d be praying for victory.

Isabelle Brulotte, the head of the organization that manages the church -- the Corporation Monseigneur Forget -- said watching hockey in churches isn’t unprecedented.

“Churches were the gathering places of their neighbourhoods and cities, so people would often go listen to hockey games in churches because they didn’t necessarily have the money to buy a TV or a radio,” she said in a recent phone interview.

While La Cargaison is running the show, the church is also joining in, offering Habs-coloured blue, white, and red candles that can be lit by anyone who wants to say a prayer for the “Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.”

Brulotte says she’s received a few calls from people who feel the sports broadcasting is inappropriate or irreverent, but insists that holding shows falls within the church’s mandate to serve the community and appeal to younger generations.

“Just in 2025, 10,000 people walked through the cathedral doors, other than for a religious celebration,” she said. “That’s quite a lot. And some of them ended up coming back for mass.”

At least one Habs player has given the church viewing parties his seal of approval.

“It literally is (a religion),” said star winger Cole Caufield, who recently became the first Canadiens player to score 50 goals in a season since 1990. “That’s a story that makes it make sense. I mean, just everybody’s so committed and passionate. No matter what kind of lifestyle you live, I think everybody’s on the same page with their hockey team.”

Matt Hoven, who holds the Kule chair in Catholic religious education at St. Joseph’s College in Edmonton, associated with the University of Alberta, disagrees that sports are a religion. While both create belonging, identity and rituals, “hockey isn’t trying to answer life’s biggest questions,” he said.

But Hoven, who has written several books about the intersection of sports and religion, including one about hockey-loving priest David Bauer, agrees that the two cultures often overlap. In Quebec, while hockey was originally seen as an English-speaker’s sport, it came to be embraced and promoted by Francophone priests, he said.

More recently, legendary Canadiens goalies Patrick Roy and Carey Price have been dubbed “Saint Patrick” and “Jesus Price” by fans, and Oilers captain Connor McDavid often appears as a Christ-like figure on T-shirts.

Hoven believes that sport can also, at times, stir up religious feelings. How else to explain people lighting candles and praying for victory, he asks?

“It’s funny when we give people opportunities, how God in the spiritual will somehow come out,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2026.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press