Why are the Montreal Canadiens called the Habs?

This is a great question. In the Northeast (or at least Buffalo, where I grew up), the sports section always called the team The Habs, which was confusing.

It's short for Les Habitants, which is a French nickname for the team. Quebec has a huge French population.

As for what Habitants means, per Wikipedia:

Habitants is the name used to refer to both the French settlers and the inhabitants of French origin who farmed the land along the two shores of the

St. Lawrence Gulf and River in what is the present-day Province of Quebec in Canada. The term was used by the inhabitants themselves and the other classes of French Canadian society from the 17th century up until the early 20th century when the usage of the word declined in favor of the more modern agriculteur (farmer) or producteur agricole (agricultural producer). The habitants live on the seigneur's property paying him with food as rent.

 Marc Bodnick
Written Apr 30, 2010