Montreal restaurants without TVs lose traffic during Canadiens playoff run

Restaurants across Montreal without televisions were losing foot traffic during the Canadiens’ playoff run as fans chose to stay home or gather where the game was on, leaving some operators to chase the same hockey dollars with bigger beer orders, fuller schedules and leaner margins.

At Peel Pub downtown, owner Paul Quinn said the playoffs could “make or break” the business and estimated revenue could jump by as much as 80 per cent. He said he tripled beer orders from about $20,000 to $50,000 ahead of the rush, a reminder that for some bars the playoff calendar behaves like a second holiday season, with inventory, staffing and cash flow all moving at once.

Ziggy’s Pub owner Ziggy Eichenbaum made a similar calculation. He said he doubled staff and inventory and expected business to rise 40 to 50 per cent. That kind of surge can mean extra servers on the floor, more bartenders behind the rail and a tighter kitchen pace as late-night orders pile up around game time.

Transaction data around the Bell Centre showed how concentrated the boom was. Moneris reported restaurant spending near the arena rose 15 per cent on Game 1 on April 19, 20 per cent on Game 2 on April 21, 16 per cent on Game 3 on April 24 and 38 per cent on Game 4 on April 26. Average transaction size jumped 44 per cent in Game 4, suggesting bigger tabs as fans lingered longer and spent more per visit.

The lift extended to bars and restaurants near the arena, where spending rose 25 per cent in Game 2 and again 25 per cent in Game 5 on April 29. Moneris said average transaction size climbed 10 per cent in Game 2 and 16 per cent in Game 5. For operators, that is the kind of short-term demand spike that can help cover wages, inventory and rent, but only if they have enough staff on hand to keep service moving.

Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada called the Canadiens’ playoff run good news for the downtown core. Moshe Lander, a senior lecturer in economics at Concordia University, said the broader citywide impact was likely limited even if downtown bars and entertainment venues benefited. In other words, the gains were uneven: one block’s crowded patio can be another restaurant’s empty dining room.

The city was also bracing for the scale of the turnout. Montreal police said they had been preparing for playoff gatherings for weeks and would deploy “many hundreds” of officers, while the city installed anti-ramming barriers around the Bell Centre. The Canadiens’ official Game 7 watch party there on Monday was sold out, with $12 tickets and profits going to the evenko Foundation, a final sign that the playoff economy was still moving long after puck drop.