Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
The Canadiens are now one win away from clinching their playoff series with the Lightning after earning a victory on Wednesday night. They’ll have the support of all of Quebec when they head back up to Montreal for Game 6, including an electric company that temporarily tweaked its logo to remove a symbol associated with Tampa Bay.
No NHL team has won the Stanley Cup more times than the Montreal Canadiens, who have secured that trophy on 23 occasions since the league kicked off its inaugural campaign in 1917. However, they have not earned the right to hoist it since 1993, which was also the last time a franchise hailing from Canada ended the season as champions.
The team did make it to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021 before losing to the Lightning in five games, but they ended up missing the playoffs three years in a row before returning ahead of a first-round exit last season.
The Canadiens were hoping to improve on that finish when they found themselves matched up against Tampa Bay in the opening round this year, and on Wednesday, they took a 3-2 lead in the series with a 3-2 win on the road.
Now, it’s hard to imagine that victory had anything to do with a company that supplies electricity to the province they call home deciding to update its logo before that showdown, but it’s safe to assume they’ll be going with the alternative one for the remainder of the series based on what unfolded after it rolled out a new look.
Hydro-Quebec erased the lightning bolt from its logo in solidarity with the Canadiens during their playoff showdown with Tampa Bay
Hydro-Quebec is a government-operated electrical provider that has been supplying the province with power since the company’s foundation in 1944. It also serves customers in Ontario and parts of the northeastern United States, but its primary focus is the area that can be firmly defined as Canadiens Country.
The company initially featured a busy and fairly on-the-nose logo that incorporated a beaver, maple leaves, and the fleur-de-lis, but in 1964, it opted to simplify things with a stylized “Q” boasting a tail inspired by a lightning bolt.
Hydro-Quebec
That is still the case more than 60 years later, but prior to Game 5 on Wednesday, the company decided to show some support behind the Canadiens and distance itself from Tampa Bay with a simple redesign that removed the lightning from the letter.
The change was not instituted on its official website, but the profile pictures on its Instagram and TikTok accounts have been altered to reflect it for the time being.
They will presumably remain unchanged until the series comes to an end, which will end up being on Sunday if the Canadiens can’t get the job done on Friday night.