Thanks to the generosity of season ticket holders, of one of the Canadiens' corporate partners and of the club's owner, over a hundred members of the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Military College Saint-Jean as well as their families will have the chance to attend the game tomorrow.
Fans are encouraged to be in their seats by 6:30 p.m. in order to witness their Canadiens in dressed in other than their regular bleu-blanc-rouge attire. To show their support for the local military community, veterans, and their families prior to Remembrance Day, players will be wearing special camouflage jerseys during warmups. These signed jerseys will be put up for auction on
http://camo.signaturepro.ca
. Members of the public will have until Saturday, November 16 to place their bids on the one-of-a-kind collectible items. Funds raised as part of this Military Appreciation Auction will benefit Support Our Troops, a non-profit organization that provides financial support and assistance to Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans, and their respective families.
The pregame ceremony, which will feature the Canadian Armed Forces flag party, will begin at 7:00 p.m. Lieutenant-General Jean-Marc Lanthier, the Vice Chief of the Defense Staff, will be invited onto the ice, along with three other active military personnel and a 90-year-old Korean War veteran, for a ceremonial puck drop. "Our organization would like to express its deepest thanks to the Montreal Canadiens for honouring the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces. We are all grateful for their support, and for celebrating our veterans tomorrow evening," said Lieutenant-General Jean-Marc Lanthier. National anthems will be performed by Warrant Officer David Grenon of the Royal Canadian Air Force Band, accompanied by musicians from the Royal Military College Saint-Jean.
"Many Molson men have been deployed overseas during both World Wars, including my great-uncle Percival Molson who died on the front. It is therefore of utmost importance for my family and I to honour all Canadian fallen heroes and to salute the courage of the thousands of servicemen and women who put their lives on the line every single day to defend our country," said Montreal Canadiens owner, president and chief executive officer Geoff Molson, who was also appointed as the first Honorary Colonel of the Royal Military College Saint-Jean in 2015 by Rob Nicholson, then Minister of National Defence. In addition to being deeply rooted in the Molson's family's history, military service has been part of the Canadiens' heritage since 1952, when a passage from In Flanders Fields, a poem written by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae during the Great War, first appeared on the walls of the dressing room. "McCrae's words have been overlooking our players' heads every single day for the past sixty-seven years. They have guided us through 18 of the 24 Stanley Cups our team has won and remain, to this day, a source of inspiration for players, who aspire to show the same dedication and commitment on the ice as our members of the Canadian Armed Forces do in combat."
