Le Club de hockey Canadien de Montréal dates back to 1909: the 2009 season included various events to celebrate its centennial including the opening of a special plaza, the Place du Centenaire, at the corner of La Gauchetière and de la Montagne which features statues of Howie Morenz, Maurice Richard, Jean Béliveau and Guy Lafleur. The section of La Gauchetière which passes the Bell Centre, between Peel and de la Montagne, has been renamed Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal in their honour, and a hall of fame has been opened in the Bell Centre with memorabilia of the team's hundred years.
The team marked its official centennial on December 4, 2009, and embarked on its second century.
The Canadiens were among the most successful professional sports teams of the 20th century, having brought the Stanley Cup home 24 times between 1916 and 1993; the gap between 1993 and today is the team's longest drought without a Cup.
The team – also known as the Habs, and in French the bleu-blanc-rouge, le Tricolore, la Sainte-Flanelle, le CH, les Glorieux – is part of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League.
It's difficult to convey quite how strongly Montreal identifies with this hockey team. Its ups and downs, the fate of its various stars, seem to embody and reflect the mood of the city itself. The premature death of star forward Howie Morenz in 1937 prefigured the carnage of World War II. The Richard riot of 1955 is commonly regarded as the first public demonstration of a Quebec nationalism that would grow throughout the rest of the century.
Some fans still feel that the team's 1996 desertion of the Montreal Forum is partly responsible for its long Cup drought: it has never won one in its current home, the Bell Centre. The Forum was generally but quietly regarded as having protective ghosts – one of the reasons the team's old changing room was faithfully re-created in the new arena – but so far this gesture has not convinced the ghosts to bring the team the Stanley Cup.Typically, when the Canadiens get into the playoffs, game nights bring a hush to the streets punctuated with audible cheers and groans from houses and drinking establishments throughout the city. Wins are followed by outbreaks of honking, waving of the CH logo flag and, occasionally, rioting and vandalism; losses, by a certain discreet silence as fans quietly disperse.
The Canadiens have entered the playoffs for the 2009-2010 season. On April 28, 2010 they won a seventh game over the Washington Capitals in the quarter-finals and have progressed to the next round against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On May 12 they won a seventh game over the Pittsburgh Penguins and will embark on a series against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, May 16 which will determine the NHL Eastern Conference championship.
On May 24 they lost the Eastern Conference championship series to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Canadiens official siteWikipedia page in English, page Wikipédia en français
The Gazette's faceoff.com and Habs Inside/Out blog
Rue Frontenac's Canadiens page
La Presse's hockey section and Radio-Canada's hockey pages give lots of space to the Canadiens, of course.
Yahoo sports page
Bleacher Report
CJAD radio carries the games in English and CKAC in French, both offering web streaming.