With the Canadiens' 2026-27 season opening Sept. 29, here is how Quebec brands should plan creator content before puck drop, not after.
On September 29, the Montreal Canadiens open their 2026-27 season on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the seventh consecutive year the two Original Six rivals have faced off to start the campaign. A week later, on October 6, the Habs host the Carolina Hurricanes at the Bell Centre for their home opener, the first of an expanded 84-game schedule, the franchise's longest in more than three decades. For brands doing business in Quebec, that calendar is not a hockey footnote. It is one of the most reliable attention windows the province offers all year.
Every fall, the same pattern repeats: search interest in the Canadiens climbs for weeks before puck drop, peaks around the home opener, and stays elevated through the first month of the season. Most brands either ignore that window entirely or arrive late with a generic sponsorship banner. The ones that win it start earlier, and they treat it as a content opportunity first, a media buy second.
Sponsorship gets you a logo. Creators get you a conversation
A rink-side banner reaches whoever happens to glance at it. A well-briefed creator reaches an audience that already wants to talk about the Canadiens, and keeps talking well after the final buzzer. That distinction matters more this season than most, with an 84-game slate meaning four matchups against every Atlantic Division rival and a home opener specifically built for a big moment.
The brands that get the most out of this stretch are not necessarily the ones spending the most. They are the ones building a real content plan around three phases: the pre-season buildup, the home opener itself, and the weeks that follow, when fan attention is high but competition for it has not yet caught up.
| Phase | Key date | What brands should be doing |
|---|---|---|
| Build-up | Now through Sept. 29 | Brief creators, seed anticipation content, lock in talent before demand spikes |
| Season opener | Sept. 29 at Toronto | Reactive, real-time content, watch parties, first-impressions coverage |
| Home opener & beyond | Oct. 6 vs. Carolina, and the weeks after | Bell Centre activations, behind-the-scenes access, sustained creator content through October |
Authenticity still wins, even in a jersey
The mistake most brands make with sports marketing is treating it as a separate discipline from influencer marketing, when the two now overlap almost entirely. A creator with real, built-in credibility, the kind covered in why sports brands need an influencer strategy, not just a sponsorship budget, will always outperform a generic ad slot, because their audience already trusts their read on the game.
That is exactly why brands cannot afford to wait until the puck actually drops to start planning, a point One Way has made before and one worth repeating as the schedule tightens: the window to brief creators, secure usage rights and build a real content calendar closes fast once the season is underway. For a deeper look at the planning side of this, see why brands can't wait until puck drop to plan.
The brands that win hockey season are not the loudest ones on gameday. They are the ones who were already talking to fans in September.
Quebec's sports and lifestyle creator scene has only gotten deeper heading into this season, and brands looking for the right voices to carry a Canadiens-season campaign have more real options than ever among the province's top athletes and sports creators. The opportunity is not exclusive to hockey brands either. Retail, food and beverage, and lifestyle categories all see measurable lifts tied to home-game traffic and fan gatherings across the city.
The schedule itself is already public, confirmed directly by the NHL's official season announcement. What is not yet decided is which brands show up ready, and which ones are still finalizing a plan after the first puck has already dropped.
