The Montreal Canadiens Show Commitment to Supporting Women and Minorities

March 8 was International Women’s Day, and over the last couple of months the Montreal Canadiens have shown their commitment to support women and minorities. To celebrate International Women’s Day, the Canadiens recently tried to spotlight a few of the women who work with the Canadiens and the AHL’s Laval Rocket. 

The Canadiens explained how these women have contributed to the success of both teams and continue to do so today. One of the women is Dr. Penny-Jane Baylis. She is the sports medicine physician for the Canadiens and Rocket head team physician. Her interest in healthcare and hockey eventually led her to the Canadiens and Rocket. With the Rocket, Dr. Baylis signs off on players returning from injury and works with Rocket athletic therapist Glen Kinney to manage illnesses and injuries for the team. She also works with a group of other professionals that includes a dentist, physician, and orthopedic surgeon. 

Dr. Baylis’ role with the Canadiens is a sports medicine physician. With the Canadiens, Dr. Baylis and a team of multidisciplinary physicians work to bring the best care to the athletes. Maybe she will come to mind the next time a healthy Canadiens team steps onto the ice. 

Next, the team explained how Miranda McMillan assists the team in her role as a hockey data analyst. McMillan joined the Canadiens in 2022. Her job is to find trends and patterns in the data, communicate with the sport science and performance teams, automating analysis and data collection, and creating pregame and postgame reports. Analytics are a huge part of all the major sports today, not just hockey. So, McMillan’s role with the team is a big one. Even people who are sports betting in Quebec use data to help inform their bets. Analytics are a huge part of sports in general in 2025.

Rocket assistant athletic therapist Marie-Pierre Neron and sports dietitian Renee Racine also were given recognition for their contributions. Neron helps the team with injury prevention and rehabilitation, especially for injured players while they’re at home and aren’t with the team; she handles treatment, workouts, and rehabilitation exercises. And Racine helps with planning the menu, hydration, working with players individually to optimize performance, helps players return from injury, manages the supplement program, and more. 

Canadiens celebrating minorities 

Last month, members of PWHL’s Montreal Victoire participated in the 2025 Canadiens Skills Competition, a little over two weeks before International Women’s Day. This month is Women’s History Month in the US. Last month was the Black History Month. The Canadiens celebrated Black History Month in a few ways. The team promoted and sold merchandise with a custom logo to celebrate the vibrant culture of the African diaspora. Some are still available for purchase. The logo featured cowrie shells and a wax textile pattern. The logo was created by interdisciplinary artist Anna Binta Diallo. 

In January, the Canadiens promoted a custom logo to celebrate the Lunar New Year and East Asian culture, featuring a snake, sun, mountains, and lanterns. That logo was created by Korean illustrator Seungji An. The team celebrated the Lunar New Year on January 25 when they played against the New Jersey Devils with lion dancers, food, red envelopes with gift cards, and more.

The Canadiens celebrated the heritage of Quebec’s Black community on February 27 when the team played against the San Jose Sharks with music, food, and more. The team even has a Black History Month section on their site. The team posted a few of their past initiatives to support the Black community and promote inclusivity in hockey there. You will find information about Black History Month activities in Quebec, the team’s community events, a documentary on the contributions of Black players to hockey, and more. 

Supporting the 2SLGBTQIA+ community

The latest community to be celebrated by the Canadiens? The 2SLGBTQIA+ community was celebrated with Pride Night on March 15 when the Habs played against the Florida Panthers. For Pride Night, players wore Pride pins before the game and used Pride Tape during warmups. A pregame awareness workshop was held featuring rainbow cake at concessions and more. 

Like with the Black and East Asian communities, the Canadiens had a custom logo for the event. The Canadiens logo featured colours from the Pride flag. And like the Black community, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community also has a section on their site. There you can find a couple of organizations and projects that support creating a fair and inclusive environment for the community. In 2025, the team has shown a commitment to support women and minorities with all of these actions and more.