OK, lets establish a few things. First, obviously, Montréal is first and foremost a hockey market, and the Canadiens having a winning tradition and being the Yankees of hockey, are huge in this city. But here's a few things we have to keep in mind. a) The Candiens almost moved to Cleveland of all places in the late 30's or early 40's, I'm not so sure. But they almost did. The arrival of Maurice Richard among others changed the fortunes of the club. Speaking of mister Richard, as popular as he was in his A-day, Yvon Robert, the most proeminnent figure on Québec's pro wrestling scene in the 50's was every bit as popular as he was, despite the fact that he was, well, a pro wrestler. And The Rocket after his career turned pretty much into an aftertought in this province. He was doing Grecian formula comercials to earn a living and was pretty much to butt of ridicule. He began being revered in the province really in the latter years of his life.
By the same token, baseball is in the very fabric of this city's sports scene. Let's not forget that the team that eventually became known as the Royals won it's first league championship in 1898, 11 full years before the Canadiens were formed. And when the Habs were struggling to stay afloat in the 30's and 40's, the Royals were enjoying great success. When they held that press conference in October of 45 to announce the signing of Jackie Robinson with the club, many people tought an expansion major leagues team was coming to town (wouldn't that have been something; Montréal with a Major league club, but no NHL franchise...). And the period where the Expos were at the height of their popularity (1979 to 83) that had nothing to do with the Candiens being bottom dwellers. They had a run of great dominance from 1976 to 1979, and the epic rivalry with the Québec Nordiques was just beginning. So saying that Montréal is a hockey only market and that the Canadiens have always been the only team that mattered in this city is just factually incorrect, altough we are often led to believe that.
Now, I think everyone who lives in Montréal would agree that this frenzy we're in right now is pretty much unheard of. It wasn't nearly this bad when they were a game away from the cup in 93. But I'll let this year aside, cause the team is actually good, for the first time in a decade. But the Canadiens sold out every game two years ago despite finishing with the 15th best record in the league. And the media gave wall to wall, obscene coverage to the 6 little playoff games they played. And last year was even worse. The team sold out all its games despite finishing 19th out of 30 teams. And the city was a buzz with that very average club, despite them being incapable of making a real push for the playoffs in the last few weeks of the season. I don't believe that would have happened had the public had an option. If there had been a decent baseball team with an owner, perhaps even a stadium, a lot of people would have said "You know what, screw them loosers. They can't even beat Toronto, even if they make the playoffs they will get killed. Let's turn our attention to the Expos who are just breaking camp. This year might be their year". But with nothing else to care for, people root for the Canadiens know like they never did, despite the fact that, prior to this year, they've been going thru their worst streak of futility since the 30's.
So yes, The Canadiens have benefited greatly from the Expos moving. There's more media space devoted to sports now that there ever was, and there's no team to fill that space besides them. Cause let's face it; the Expos and Canadiens use to compete with each other and not with the Alouettes or the Impact. Big league teams don't compete with semi-pro clubs playing in second tier leagues (and in the case of the Impact, I'm being generous calling them a semi-pro team playing a second tier league. They just had a training camp in Europe and they got creamed by teams made of people they picked out of the street, basically).
