Tom Alvey and Tracey Huxford deck out Upper Ottawa Street for Canadiens Montreal
Tom Alvey and Tracey Huxford turned their Upper Ottawa Street home, car and lawn into a canadiens montreal tribute before the team’s next playoff game against the Buffalo Sabres. The Hamilton natives have made the display part of their Stanley Cup routine since 2021, and this year they carried it beyond the house and onto themselves.
Upper Ottawa Street turns Habs red
The couple decorated the outside of their east Mountain home for the Stanley Cup playoffs, then added a Canadiens-themed car hood cover, flags, lights and a tapestry of Ken Dryden spanning the door. They also decorated their bodies, extending the same playoff message from the driveway to the street.
Alvey and Huxford have never lived in Montreal, and they do not speak French. That has not changed how they follow the club. They watch every Habs game and often travel to Montreal, Buffalo and Pittsburgh to watch live, with several Habs tattoos marking how far that support goes.
Tom Alvey on team identity
Their attachment to the Canadiens traces back to a 2021 Stanley Cup match in Montreal between the Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Since that series, the playoff decorating has become a tradition, and it returned again as Montreal prepared for Buffalo.
Huxford described the appeal in simple terms: “Just to see these guys out there, playing with their hearts. It’s so much fun,” she said. Alvey put the draw in team terms: “It’s not just one guy trying to be a superstar like the Leafs,” he said. “The whole team has a heart, and it’s all beating at once.”
Playoff tradition beyond Montreal
The display also turns the sidewalk into part of the story. Huxford said, “We have a fun time with it and all the people going by,” and that reaction has become part of the tradition as much as the flags and lights.
For Canadiens fans in Hamilton, the point is not geography. It is devotion strong enough to cover a home, a car and their bodies before a playoff game, with Buffalo next on the schedule and the same 2021-era ritual still driving the show.
