‘Never felt it like this’: Famous Montreal barber sees new level of Canadiens fever

MONTREAL — Domenico Perrazino, the famous Montreal barber better known as “Ménick,” still remembers when Maurice Richard won five straight Stanley Cups with the Canadiens in the late 1950s.

Years later, when Guy Lafleur led a dynasty in the 1970s, Ménick cut the free-flowing hair of “Le Démon Blond,” and the two became lifelong friends.

“I’ve seen almost all of them, the Stanley Cups,” said the 85-year-old Ménick. “I was there.”

But what’s happening this spring, he said, feels different. Montreal has always lived and breathed the Canadiens, but the frenzy is somehow reaching another level these playoffs — even with the team only in the second round.

“I may have never felt it like this,” Ménick said from his Masson Street shop on the edge of the Plateau neighbourhood, where the floor is painted like a skating rink and photos of Quebec’s preeminent celebrities line the walls.

“Right now, it’s so special. We have so many young stars,” he added. “The Canadiens always had winning teams, so it was always one after another. But it’s been 30 years since we’ve won anything. That didn’t happen before, so now we’re hungrier.”

The Canadiens, winners of a record 24 Stanley Cup titles, haven’t lifted the trophy since 1993, but the current edition is young, electrifying and giving Habs faithful reason to believe the drought could finally end in the coming years.

A rowdy crowd filled the 21,000-seat Bell Centre last Sunday even though the Canadiens were playing Game 7 on the road in Tampa, Fla. On game days, thousands of fans pack the streets surrounding the arena as downtown morphs into a full-on party.

That fervour has spread across the city, where lineups for sports bars now commonly spill onto the sidewalks outside.

The enthusiasm carries on at the box office. Beyond the playoff games — where the get-in price for Sunday’s Game 3 approached $500 — the team told season-ticket holders this week it had set a new Bell Centre record with a renewal rate “just barely under the 100 per cent mark.”

Not surprising that buildings and businesses in Montreal are buying in.

The Rialto Theatre, a National Historic Site on Park Avenue, opened its doors for free watch parties. Hydro-Québec changed its logo at headquarters, illuminating everything except the lightning bolt during the Canadiens’ first-round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Several restaurants followed suit in the second round, changing the names of “Buffalo” wings menu items as the Canadiens face the Sabres.

St-Viateur Bagel, one of the city’s iconic shops in Mile End, has been making bagels shaped like the Canadiens logo (though they’re not for sale). Just a few blocks away, popular doughnut shop Bernie Beigne has red, white and blue doughnuts flying off the shelves.

“We’re selling at least 300 to 500 Habs doughnuts alone (on a game day),” said Bernie Beigne employee Gabriel Ioannoni.

Hip basement dive bar Double’s temporarily changed its sign to “Dobes’s” after the first round in honour of Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes. The owners then took it a step further by placing a mattress over the pool table for patrons to pose for photos, a nod to a viral Instagram post from the rookie goalie.

“We were so excited about beating Tampa Bay because we hate them so much, and the creative juices were out of control,” said co-owner Victor-Alex Petrenko. “Every idea was a good idea.

“All the restaurants, all the bars are filled with people. The vibes are high … It’s just good for the city.”

Ménick, who’s also been dubbed “le barbier des sportifs” — the athletes’ barber — has been running his shop for 67 years, since opening it at age 18. He said he thought he’d seen it all, but this is different.

“Even before, the passion wasn’t the same, because today it’s more commercialized, the media attention is bigger than it used to be,” he said. “It’s everywhere.”

Menick began working in sports to build a clientele, serving in media relations for the Montreal Junior Canadiens and Laval National, where he got to know players like Guy Lapointe and Mike Bossy.

“That’s how I managed to make myself known,” he said.

Current Canadiens players don’t visit Chez Ménick for haircuts: “I’m 85 years old, I can’t hang out with Cole Caufield,” he said.

But he, like legions of Canadiens fans, is loving this group from afar.

“This year, with (Nick) Suzuki, Caufield, (Juraj) Slafkovsky, (Ivan) Demidov, (Lane) Hutson … And with the way Martin St. Louis is loved and the guys play for him,” he said, pointing to a photo of himself and the Canadiens coach on the wall. “I say we have a team for the next 10 years.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 8, 2026.

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press