The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference.

[10] The Canadiens previously played at the Montreal Forum, which housed the team for seven decades and all but their first two Stanley Cup championships.

[13] The Canadiens also had the most championships by a team of any of the four major North American sports leagues until the New York Yankees won their 25th World Series title in 1999.

However, the Canadiens, along with cross-town rivals the Montreal Maroons, declined both on the ice and economically during the Great Depression era.

Losses grew to the point where team owners considered selling interest to Cleveland, Ohio, though local investors were ultimately found to finance the Canadiens.

[25] Led by the "Punch Line" of Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Toe Blake and Elmer Lach in the 1940s, the Canadiens enjoyed success again atop the NHL.

Team owner Molson Brewery sold control of the franchise and the Molson Centre to American businessman George N. Gillett Jr. in 2001, with the right of first refusal for any future sale by Gillett and a condition that the NHL Board of Governors must unanimously approve any attempt to move to a new city.

[40] Led by club president Pierre Boivin, the Canadiens returned to being a lucrative enterprise, earning additional revenues from broadcasting and arena events.

In 2009, Gillett sold the franchise to a consortium led by the Molson family which included The Woodbridge Company, BCE/Bell, the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Michael Andlauer, Luc Bertrand and the National Bank Financial Group for $575 million, more than double the $275 million he spent on the purchase eight years prior.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadiens only played against teams in the division in the regular season to avoid travel restrictions between the United States and Canada.

[48] After defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in the penultimate round, clinching an overtime victory in game 6 of the series, they reached their first Stanley Cup Finals in 28 years, whilst also being the first Canadian team to do so since the Vancouver Canucks in 2011.

As a result, team owner Geoff Molson authorized a "rebuild" of the roster over an extended period, a first in the modern history of the franchise.

[58] According to About.com, the first man to refer to the team as "the Habs" was American Tex Rickard, owner of the Madison Square Garden, in 1924.

[59] In French, the "Habitants" nickname dates back to at least 1914, when it was printed in Le Devoir to report a 9–3 win over Toronto on the ninth of February.

The home sweater is predominantly red in colour and features four blue and white stripes: one across each arm, one across the chest and the other across the waistline.

[65] A second iteration was released in the 2022–23 season, again using the same template but with red relegated to the logo only and featuring a light blue base with white/dark blue/white stripes.

[66] This period also saw the introduction of corporate sponsor advertising across NHL-sanctioned equipment, starting with helmet ads and followed by front jersey patches on gameday uniforms.

In the short story "The Hockey Sweater", Roch Carrier described the influence of the Canadiens and their jersey within rural Quebec communities during the 1940s.

Be yours to hold it high.The motto is from the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae, which was written in 1915, the year before the Canadiens won their first Stanley Cup championship.

The motto appears on the wall of the Canadiens' dressing room as well as on the inside collar of the new Adidas Adizero jerseys introduced in 2017.

[77] In November 2022, the Canadiens introduced METAL!, an "unofficial official mascot", for the team's Reverse Retro series of games that season.

[79] The Canadiens have developed strong rivalries with two fellow Original Six franchises, with whom they frequently shared divisions and competed in postseason play.

[85] As of the 2017–18 season, the team's regional television in both languages, and its English-language radio rights, are held by Bell Media.

[86] Regional television rights in French are held by Réseau des sports (RDS) under a 12-year deal that began in the 2014–15 season.

[88] A sister to the English-language network TSN, RDS was the only French-language sports channel in Canada until the 2011 launch of TVA Sports,[89] and was also the previous national French rightsholder of the NHL; as a result, the Canadiens forwent a separate regional contract, and allowed all of its games to be televised nationally in French as part of RDS's overall NHL rights.

As a result, games on RDS are blacked out outside the Canadiens' home market of Quebec, Atlantic Canada and parts of Eastern Ontario shared with the Ottawa Senators.

[91][92] TSN2 assumed the English-language regional television rights in the 2017–18 season, with John Bartlett on play-by-play, and Dave Poulin, Mike Johnson and Craig Button on colour commentary.

[95][96] English-language regional rights were previously held by Sportsnet East (with CJNT City Montreal as an overflow channel), under a three-year deal that expired following the 2016–17 season; the games were called by Bartlett and Jason York.

Prior to this deal, TSN held the rights from 2010 through 2014; the games were broadcast on a part-time channel with Dave Randorf on play-by-play.

The other five award recipients are Doug Smith (1985), Dick Irvin Jr. (1988), Richard Garneau (1999), Gilles Tremblay (2002), and Pierre Houde (2024).