Since 2009: Molson Family Acquires Team
Ownership of the Canadiens once again passed to the Molson family in 2009 after Gillett sold the team, Bell Centre, and Gillett Entertainment Group to a partnership headed by Geoff Molson and including his brothers Andrew and Justin. The sale price was estimated at over $600 million. Unlike the pre-Gillett era, the team is now privately owned by the Molson family and not by the Molson brewery, which is now a division of Molson Coors. The reputed sale price reflected a return to profitability, due both to a new collective bargaining agreement after the 2004-05 lockout that fixed player costs to revenues and to a rise in the value of the Canadian dollar back to at or near parity with the U.S. dollar.
On the ice, during the 2010 playoffs, the team reached the Stanley Cup conference finals for the first time since 1993, upsetting the top-seeded Washington Capitals and the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the first two rounds; the Habs lost the conference finals to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The NHL revived the Heritage Classic concept, with the Canadiens facing the Calgary Flames at McMahon Stadium in Calgary on February 20, 2011. The Flames defeated the Canadiens, by a score of 4–0, before a crowd of 41,022 spectators. The 2011 Heritage Classic was the second outdoors game held during the 2010–11 season, following the 2011 NHL Winter Classic.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Montreal Canadiens
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