Le Canadien, means the Canadian in English and this is how I often see our beloved club referred to as for example by a good friends on RDS...
However, whenever I speak French with my friends we commonly refer to them as "les canadien".
I have a strong affinity to refer to our glorious clubs as "The Canadians" whenever I speak English.
As much as the word nationalism and nation is manipulated for patriotic fervour, I feel our hockey team,"Les Canadien" represents the entire "united" Canadian nation, since a "Canadien" is the same as "Canuck", both terms, at least for me represents, refers to, rather, our glorious nation of Canada.
Les Canadiens designates the players, mostly used in the present tense.
Le Canadien designates the club as a whole, whether it's in the past, present or future.
You can say, les canadiens de montréal vont jouer contre les bruins mercredi.
Or, le canadien de montréal va jouer contre les bruins mercredi.
But it somehow sounds better to use Le instead of Les.
The habs are the only team that can be used in plural and singular
Les Flames de Calgary
(can't say le flames de Calgary)
Le Lightning de Tampa Bay
(can't say les lightnings)
Le Wild du Minneasota
(can't say les wilds)
etc.
- It's pretty much the same in english but the use of plural and singular is more distinct in french since you need to have les in front of canadien(s)
i often seen, like a recent JDM front page "Markov joue les heros"
i've never understood why it isn't "joue le hero". how can someone be the heroes? lol
You know, I've heard that expression since I was young and never really paid attention to it. Now that you mention it, it does sound weird. But then again, a lot of expressions, English or French, are kind of weird if you try to make sense out of them.
One last thing people... It's not "Ce soir". It's "À soir". My god, where have you learned your french? Books and fancy classes??
"Canadiens jouzent ben à soir". There you go. That's the only sentence you need to know.
Les Canadiens designates the players, mostly used in the present tense.
Le Canadien designates the club as a whole, whether it's in the past, present or future.
You can say, les canadiens de montréal vont jouer contre les bruins mercredi.
Or, le canadien de montréal va jouer contre les bruins mercredi.
But it somehow sounds better to use Le instead of Les.
The habs are the only team that can be used in plural and singular
Les Flames de Calgary
(can't say le flames de Calgary)
Le Lightning de Tampa Bay
(can't say les lightnings)
Le Wild du Minneasota
(can't say les wilds)
etc.
- It's pretty much the same in english but the use of plural and singular is more distinct in french since you need to have les in front of canadien(s)
, correct way is jouent 
.
