Your guide to enjoying the habs at home.

I live in Toronto. It's a rough city to be a habs fan in; as we had the audacity to ship them via free agency a penalty-box timekeeper pretending to be an all-star defenseman.

That said, living in Ontario, or really anywhere outside of la belle Province makes it incredibly challenging to actually enjoy a Habs game. RDS is hard to stumble upon, Hockey Night in Canada coverage is lacking, and six hour commutes are somewhat inconvenient to see your team.

I'm going to try and keep this fairly affordable and vague. Not everyone can commit thousands of dollars to a home theatre.

So here I present: The Essentials to Creating a Home Habs Experience

1: You will need a TV. Not a computer, not a laptop. NHL Gamecentre on their website has some incredibly unfortunate restrictions with blackouts.. and internet connection latency

2: You'll need a cable box or sattelite. This unfortunately is non-negotiable. You simply wont get more than a dozen games without it.

3: Order the channels! If you need english coverage, you'll be shelling out around $140/season for the Center Ice package, which is great. If that seems a bit excessive you can cut the cost in half by simply ordering RDS, which only sets you back $6 a month, though you get no other teams and your games will be in French. If this is a problem to you, pull up a laptop and watch the game while listening to the CJAD feed off the internet:  http://www.cjad.com/

4: Your experience is going to be limited if you don't have good seating. A good couch or big recliner really helps take the edge off of going 0-10 on the man advantage.

5: Beer, scotch, bourbon, or ginger ale. While not openly promoting alcohol, a good sipping beverage really does add to the experience. And if you like your drinks with kick, they can help you forget it after an embarassing home loss. There's also the added subtle team loyalty if you drink Molson, or only drink Molson when the team is leading. The one buddy you could convince to watch the Habs with you will truly understand your committment.

6: Snacks. Both satisfying and an excuse to leave your seat during commercial breaks and embarassing defensive lapses.

7: Either a buddy or twitter. Just so you're not potentially drinking alone in your basement watching a hockey game with commentary that you don't understand. If you're really good at this you might even want to start a hockey blog.