TAMPA \u2014 A sea of blue and white filled the seats inside Benchmark International Arena as the puck dropped for Game 1 of the NHL playoffs between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.<\/p>\n
There was also a healthy dose of red \u2014 with a group of Canadiens diehards attempting to tilt the balance in favour of the visitors.<\/p>\n
Superfan Alexander Rougas, the founder of popular supporter-run channel Habs Fan TV, ordered 5,000 red towels to Tampa as part of what he calls \u201cOperation Red Bay,\u201d a planned takeover effort for the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI brought it down from 10,000,\u201d said Rougas, a Montreal native. \u201cThat was a bit too ambitious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rougas, partner C\u00e9drik S\u00e9guin and several other Canadiens supporters ran from block to block in the 30 C Florida heat hours before game time to distribute the generic red towels, acquired in partnership with Loto-Qu\u00e9bec sports betting site \u201cMise-o-jeu.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dyed-in-the-wool fans even drove a golf cart through the heart of enemy territory to ensure every Canadiens fan in sight walked through the gates with a splash of red.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how many Habs fans live in Florida, and if not, there are so many Habs fans that love to travel,\u201d Rougas said. \u201cWe\u2019ve noticed that throughout the years and we said to ourselves, \u2018why don\u2019t we turn Tampa Bay into Red Bay?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Canadiens fan Jean Trudel, also involved in the project, added: \u201cThis is our opportunity to show that the Habs Nation is way bigger than Tampa Bay thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n
So how do Lightning fans feel about the so-called Habs invasion?<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for bringing your money when you came to see us. We appreciate it,\u201d said Lightning season-ticket holder Bill Richard, who dyed his beard blue for the playoffs. \u201cI\u2019m sorry you\u2019re going home with a frown on your face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rougas, who has managed the channel while studying to become a lawyer, founded Habs Fan TV \u2014 or HFTV \u2014 after watching fans fill the streets of Montreal during the Canadiens\u2019 run to the 2021 Stanley Cup final, fittingly a loss to the Lightning.<\/p>\n
Drawing inspiration from post-match reaction channels in British soccer, notably Arsenal Fan TV, he hoped to fill what he saw as a void within one of hockey\u2019s most passionate fan bases.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought to myself, I\u2019m surprised no one has ever brought this to Montreal, which is as close to a European soccer city as you\u2019re going to get in hockey,\u201d Rougas said.<\/p>\n
He and S\u00e9guin set up shop for livestreams outside the Bell Centre after every home game, with hundreds of fans joining them at the corner of Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montr\u00e9al and Drummond Street.<\/p>\n
The HFTV page has taken off on social media, with more than 17 million likes and 215,000 followers on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually our crowds outside the Bell Centre grew bigger and bigger, and it led to what you see on social media every day \u2014 hundreds of Habs fans after games coming in and giving their opinions,\u201d Rougas said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s coming from the fans, it\u2019s as pure as it gets and as raw as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post-match scenes feature rowdy, unfiltered fan reactions. And viral chants.<\/p>\n
Rougas, S\u00e9guin and other fans can often be heard belting \u201cCaufield\u2019s on fire, your defence is terrified!\u201d in a nod to 50-goal scorer Cole Caufield. The chant is set to the tune of 1997 hit \u201cFreed from Desire\u201d and borrows from the Wigan Athletic F.C. chant \u201cWill Grigg\u2019s on Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty catchy tune,\u201d Caufield said after practice this week. \u201cThey\u2019ve grown a lot over the past couple of years. It\u2019s hard to miss those clips, and they\u2019re passionate about the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t missed a second of any game this year, so obviously their energy is exactly what we want and hopefully they can cheer us on for a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday in Tampa, S\u00e9guin stood outside the Lightning\u2019s practice facility in a Lightning jersey to intercept players and ask for autographs. Lightning forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand and Brayden Point happily obliged, only to notice the words \u201cHabs in 4\u201d stitched across the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, you paid for our jersey,\u201d Bjorkstrand quipped in a video posted to social media.<\/p>\n
Rougas said more than half the 5,000 towels were gone more than an hour before Game 1 puck drop. The remainder, he said, would be handed out ahead of Game 2 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA \u2014 A sea of blue and white filled the seats inside Benchmark International Arena as the puck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[2794,265,1928,5,264,21,5147,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-556387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-canadiens","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-montreal","13":"tag-montreal-canadiens","14":"tag-montrealcanadiens","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}