If you thought the Montreal Canadiens were done with snowbirds when they left Florida with a Round 1 win, think again. The Snowbirds — this time of the Armed Forces variety — flew over the Bell Centre before Game 3 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference Finals on Monday.
“Two legendary teams in red, white and blue — one in the skies, one on the ice!” the team wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday night.
The flyby occurred around 6:15 p.m., with nine aircraft flying in formation over the Bell Centre.
This was Montreal’s second Snowbirds flyby in as many days, as the aerial acrobats also made an appearance above Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ahead of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Leaving aside the prospect of further appearances occasioned by the Canadiens’ playoff run, the Snowbirds are not due to appear in Montreal again this season.
Indeed, it may be be years before Montrealers see the Snowbirds again as their CT 114 Tutor planes are due to be grounded at the end of the season and their planned replacements, a series of Swiss-made CT-157 Siskin II, are not expected to be operational until the “early 2030s.”
Here’s hoping that’s the only thing Habs fans have to wait into the next decade to see again.
Montreal’s road to the Cup
