Fans celebrating Canadiens’ Game 7 win cause microearthquakes

If you ever thought the passionate fans of the Montreal Canadiens couldn’t be any crazier, think again.

During the final two games of the Atlantic Division Final between the Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres, fans in Montreal were so rowdy that a Natural Resources Canada seismograph at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, which is around five kilometers from the Bell Center, along with a sensor in the basement lab at McGill University, recorded seismic activity.

The first instance came during Game 6 of the series this past Saturday night. While the Habs were taking a 3-0 lead on the Sabres, fans in and outside the arena went nuts. The over 21,000 patrons inside Bell Centre and over 20,000 outside ignited a magnitude of 0.5 on the Richter scale after their team jumped out in front.

However, the Canadiens went on to squander the lead, losing 6-3 to the Sabres, leading to a seventh game in Buffalo on Monday night. Even though their team wasn’t at home, Montreal still showed out, with another capacity crowd coming to Bell Centre simply to watch the game on the big screen. Between 7:47 and 8:07 p.m., when the Habs went up two on the Sabres, another spike in seismic activity was triggered.

It wasn’t reported whether an earthquake was triggered when Alex Newhook scored the game-winning goal in overtime, giving Montreal a 3-2 win, sending the team to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Montreal is considered by some to be the mecca of hockey, with fans inside its borders to being the rowdiest in the league. That energy inside the famous venue is cranked up to 11 come playoff time. For the team’s supporters, it has been a long time coming. Thanks to COVID-19, this is the first “normal” postseason where Habs’ home games can be played in front of a full building since 2017.

The Canadiens will now face the top seed in the East, the Carolina Hurricanes. Game 1 is set for Thursday night in Raleigh, with puck drop scheduled for a little after 8 p.m. ET. I suspect another boisterous crowd to be supporting the Habs from afar.