WE’LL DRINK TO HABS

Bars worry about lost season

If there’s one thing that bar owners in Montreal know, it’s that what’s bad for hockey is bad for business.

Seven years after an NHL lockout that saw the cancellation of the entire 2004-05 season, pub proprietors across the city are looking with dread at another potential work stoppage, as the current collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the players’ union expires at the end of this season.

“It’s definitely going to be bad,” said Peter Sergakis, who owns the La Station des Sports chain of bars. “We’re feeling it a little bit now because the Canadiens aren’t very successful.”

The awful season that Habs fans are enduring is offering bar owners a preview of what may come next year. Sergakis compared what some of his locations are going through now to a boom period in 2010, when the team advanced to the Eastern Conference finals.

“People were coming early to find a place to sit. They were hungry to see the Canadiens play. Now that they’re not doing that well, we have few customers left. If there’s going to be a lockout, we’re going to hurt a lot. It’s the difference between making a profit and not making a profit.”

Professional baseball left with the Expos in 2004, and the city temporarily lost its F1 Grand Prix in 2009. According to Ziggy Eichenbaum, owner of Crescent St. watering hole Ziggy’s, those losses pale in comparison to a winter with no hockey.

“No hockey is going to hit us a lot harder than F1,” he said. “F1 is just a week and a half, hockey is the whole winter. A lot of people come just to watch the games and be close to the Bell Centre.”

It’s not just bars that cater to hockey fans that will get hit. According to Toby Lyle, co-owner of The Burgundy Lion, his bar has a few customers who come to watch the games, but get a lot of their business from fans leaving the Bell Centre, looking for a post-game drink.

“We’re not really a sports bar, but our Tuesdays and the playoffs help us a lot,” he said. “We see more people when there’s a home game, and (especially) when we win.”

While there will always be reasons to have a good time in Montreal, and other sports teams such as the Impact and Alouettes to support, Sergakis claimed in the end, nothing can replace the Canadiens.

“Hockey is the Canadian sport,” he said. “It’s a very popular sport, and for us, it’s the most important sport in Montreal.”