There’s never a right way to celebrate a triumph from the Montreal Canadiens, but one fan, François Maillet, created an interesting way to do it from home.
The Montreal Canadiens never fail to prove one thing in the NHL. When the season is at its peak, and the games are as important as ever, there is no better place to be than the Bell Centre.
Take Tuesday’s game for example. The Bell Centre hasn’t been as loud as it was that night, which is saying something as Habs fans are in the top-tier of vocal fans in the league. Joel Armia and Nate Thompson got the crowd buzzing, Artturi Lehkonen‘s goal and the eventual waved challenge cranked it up a notch, but Max Domi‘s tally to make it 4-2 for the Montreal Canadiens blew the roof off the place.
It’s chilling to be there and although it’s not the same, watching it at home is exciting as well. If only there were a way to recreate that from the comfort of our couch. A difficult task, but François Maillet is getting close with what he was able to create at his home in Montreal.
ESPN had a story on Maillet in one of their latest Fan Stories. As a massive Habs fan, Maillet combined his work as an artificial intelligence developer with his passion for the team to try to recreate the experience of a goal at the Bell Centre.
"It’s really the one thing that unites us all. During the game, when you’re at the Bell Centre, the crowd goes crazy. That kind of atmosphere is something that maybe I wanted to re-create."
And recreate he did.
Maillet created a program that recognized the vocal cue of a goal, that being the ever-popular and usually emotional-filled, “ET LE BUT!” When that happens, all the lights in his house begin to flash red and blue matching the colours of the Montreal Canadiens and adding a fun element when watching a game away from the Bell Centre.
It’s great to see a fan try his best to keep the energy going, especially with the Habs in such a heated race to the playoffs. Every single fan out there knows how special it would be for the team to make it after everything that’s happened after last season. When asked about that possibility, Maillet said:
"The Habs making the playoffs would be awesome for fans like me. I’d definitely need more lights for the celebration in my apartment if they brought the cup home after 26 years of waiting!"
Couldn’t be more right there. Hopefully, the Montreal Canadiens continue their play from Tuesday and put themselves in the best position to do that.
Given what happened against Tampa, Maillet’s lights went off four times. Let’s see how many times Montreal can trigger them in the remaining games of the year.