“The parade will take the usual route” is a line Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau and many Montreal Canadiens fans would use in the 1970s. The Canadiens having a parade with the Stanley Cup was an annual occurrence, especially in the late ’70s when they won four titles in a row.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had the same fortune in the 1960s. They won the Cup three times in a row with victories in 1962, 1963, and 1964. After winning it all again in 1967 for the fourth time in the decade, the question wasn’t if there would be a parade but how it would differ from the otherwise routine celebration.
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Well… It’s been a while since a team in Canada has won the Cup. The Canadiens were the last Canadian team to win it all as they hoisted the trophy in 1993, and that was 32 years ago. A lot has changed since then, and there’s been even more change since the Maple Leafs last won in 1967.
It’s why one of the questions is what would happen if the Canadiens or Maple Leafs won the Cup again? Aside from Montreal and Toronto going crazy and the city possibly catching on fire, they’d have to take a different parade route or at least prepare for a bigger celebration, one that not only will take up more space but also involve more stops.
The Usual Route
Montreal, like many cities, is rich with tradition. Hockey is no exception, from the jerseys to the home ice experience, and the standard for excellence (they were patient with their rebuild, but it was the rare exception that the team allowed them to endure multiple losing seasons in a row).
The parade always followed the same route. It would involve the Montreal Forum, St. Catherine Street, and City Hall. It would always end up at City Hall, and it seems like the perfect place to end one, even in the present day.
There are a few problems. The first is that the Canadiens no longer play in the Forum, and instead, their home arena is the Bell Centre. The other is that St. Catherine Street isn’t a big enough street.
To be fair, it’s a three-lane street that hosts many parades in Montreal and could make room for the Canadiens. However, these parades (think St. Patrick’s Day) are minimal compared to what a parade for the Canadiens winning the Cup would be. Most championship celebrations draw one million people at a minimum and often draw close to five million. So, it’s possible the Canadiens would need to think of an alternate route, even at the cost of abandoning the tradition of St. Catherine Street.
The Maple Leafs must go back quite some time, nearly 60 years, to remember what their parade looked like (a Leafs fan must be at least 63 or older to have a clear memory of the parade). Their route began at the old Maple Leaf Gardens, and in a few convertible cars, they drove their way up to City Hall for a reception (and based on the video footage, it looks like they are driving the pace of typical Toronto traffic these days).
So, if the Maple Leafs want to take their traditional route, they can. Maple Leaf Gardens is still around, albeit not as prominent in the downtown area as it used to be, and City Hall is a great place to end up. This route, however, excludes many of the notable landmarks or destinations Toronto has, so, like the Canadiens, the Maple Leafs need an update.
An Alternate Route
One of the streets that’s parallel to St. Catherine is René-Lévesque. It’s a broad boulevard that has three lanes going in both directions. It’s the type of street that’s big enough to hold a parade for the Canadiens. It also happens to be closer to the Bell Centre, making it ideal for a modern route. If the Canadiens wanted to start at Bell Centre, they could go to René-Lévesque and from there, work their way to City Hall.
The problem with this route is that it excludes the tradition that Montreal loves to turn to. This option makes sense at first glance for an outsider, but not for the people who support the Canadiens and are well aware of their team’s history. For the Canadiens, a parade must include at least one of the following: the Montreal Forum or St. Catherine Street, if not both.
The Maple Leafs can’t look back to 1967 as a template or even the 1993 parade celebrating the Toronto Blue Jays winning the World Series. They can look at the 2019 parade for the Toronto Raptors, the basketball team that won the NBA championship, as a precedent. They started at Prince’s Gates and went down Lake Shore Drive, a street big enough for such a momentous celebration. Then they worked their way up York Street, which passes by Scotiabank Arena, to end up in Nathan Phillips Square, an area adjacent to City Hall for the ceremonies.
This route made sense for the Raptors. It doesn’t work for the Maple Leafs. The first issue is that in 2019, the fans overcrowded the area (one security officer noted how it was a disaster to deal with the crowd, even in a big space like Nathan Phillips Square). The bigger problem is that this route doesn’t include any of the hockey sites, aside from Maple Leaf Square and Scotiabank Arena. Toronto has too many to not include some of them, especially the Hockey Hall of Fame, which is a few blocks over from the arena.
Including the Past & Present
For the Canadiens, the parade ideally starts at the Forum, the birthplace of the NHL’s most historic franchise and the home to many previous celebrations. They would work their way to the Bell Centre and then end up in City Hall either by taking St. Catherine Street or René-Lévesque Street. St. Catherine might be chaotic, but chaos will be anticipated for a parade of this magnitude.
When the Canadiens reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, they did so in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when crowds weren’t common. The fans still flooded the streets and had a wild celebration. This was just to reach the Final, now imagine how things would be if they won it all?
The same would be true for the Maple Leafs, where a chaotic parade and celebration are expected, and the city would prepare accordingly. They would have a big parade that would have at least five million people in attendance.
It would be difficult to involve Maple Leafs Gardens, but it must involve Maple Leaf Square and Scotiabank Arena while passing by the Hockey Hall of Fame (something that can be done on Front Street and then Young Street). They would likely end up at City Hall, but this time around, it would require the city to make more space for fans. It’s why an alternative destination for the celebration could be Rogers Centre, where the Blue Jays play and the CN Tower is located, since there is plenty of open space there.
What do you think the parade route would look like? Let us know in the comments section below!
