Montreal ERs are getting some relief during Habs games in Stanley Cup playoffs

For some Quebecers, watching the Montreal Canadiens take to the ice during the Stanley Cup playoffs is more urgent than seeking medical care.

Hospital officials in the Montreal area say their emergency rooms generally saw dips in visits during game nights of the first round of the playoffs as the Habs defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in a seven-game series.

Zackary Levine, chief of emergency medicine at McGill University Health Centre, said many people are likely delaying non-urgent care until after the final whistle of the games.

As a result, the hockey team is providing some temporary relief for overcrowded emergency rooms that routinely operate above capacity at the centre, which is one of the largest academic networks of hospitals in North America.

"People really want to watch the game," Levine said in an interview. "Perhaps people don't mind missing work as much as they mind missing a playoff hockey game."

It's a pattern that mirrors what has sometimes happened during other major sporting events in Canada.

A peer-reviewed Canadian study published in 2011 found that emergency room visits in Ontario fell by 17 per cent during the men's hockey final at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, when Canada defeated the United States in overtime — a decline equivalent to roughly 136 fewer patients per hour.

Across Quebec more broadly, ERs have also generally reported slightly fewer visits during recent Canadiens games, says Santé Québec, the provincial agency that oversees the public health-care system.

"At the provincial level, we've observed a slight decrease," said agency spokesperson Catherine Brousseau. She noted there were, on average, about 100 fewer patients in multiple Quebec regions, including all of the regions