Hockey is back and fans are in love all over again Hockey fans from across Canada can shake the dust from their jerseys and put on team-coloured face paint again in celebration of the NHL's first day of the season. Four miserable months have passed for hockey fanatics, who have been unable to watch their favourite sport due to the National Hockey League lockout. While teams play 82 games in a typical season, this year each will play only 48. The Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg jets were the first Canadian teams to start off the season at 3 p.m. At 7 p.m. ET, the Toronto Maple leafs will face the Montreal Canadiens on the Habs" home turf. Ryan Mallough, 23, describes cheering for his team as a "religious experience." Though a resident of the Toronto suburb of Oakville, Mr. Mallough said he lost his faith in the Toronto Maple Leafs in senior kindergarten when they blew a 1995 playoff series to the Chicago Blackhawks. "They broke my heart," he said. I could never cheer for them again. As a result of childhood heartbreak - and his father living just outside of Montreal - Mr. Mallough now cheers for the Montreal Canadiens. "To get together with other Habs fans and to watch the Habs is like going to church," he said. The old players are like saints - everyone tells stories about them. There's no other fan base like the Montreal fan base. Tonight, Mr. Mallough is excited to relive his usual game-watching ritual: Having friends over, ordering pizza and watching the game in French. He will also be wearing his usual outfit to watch a game: slippers, pajama pants, a hat, jersey, gloves, and scarves that all bear the Montreal Canadiens" logo. Mr. Mallough isn't the only one who will be dressed for the game. Chelsey Getz, 23, will be dressing her cat - named Kesler after Vancouver Canuck Ryan Kesler - in her favourite team's gear. A resident of Abbotsford, B.C., Ms. Getz said that she could barely sleep last night from all the excitement over Saturday's game, when the Canucks and Anaheim Ducks play at 10 p.m. "Ever since elementary school, people have known me as "the girl who's obsessed with the Canucks,"" she said. [The Canucks] got me through everything throughout my life. All the hard times, I always went and watched hockey. And I just owe them for that. But fans aren't the only ones who are thrilled about the return of hockey. Oasis Pub & Eatery, one of the biggest sports bar in Halifax, will be showing every game Saturday to ensure that hockey fans won't miss a moment. Adam Lardner, the general manager, says he is thankful for the season's return, as both a fan and a hospitality insider. "[The lockout] clearly means a downturn in business," he said. The loss of something that huge is always going to impact your bottom line. But Mr. Lardner said what he missed most was the general "buzz" that comes with the hockey season: the atmosphere, the rivalry and the "trash talk between fans." He expects the atmosphere at the bar will be "electric," and won't be surprised if nearly all 400 seats are filled. "It's just going to be a very exciting place to be," he said. You're going to see a lot of people yelling and screaming. On the other side of Canada, another bar manager expressed similar sentiments. Taylor Downes, manager of Legend's Restaurant and Sports Bar in Winnipeg, Manitoba, missed getting together with friends to watch the games. She is also excited to see a positive atmosphere return to the bar - one that often comes when hockey fans showing up to watch the game. "The whole mood shifts," she said. It just becomes a more positive, exciting place to be. "Exciting" is just one way to describe the atmosphere outside of Winnipeg's MTS Centre Saturday afternoon: Fans started lining up two hours before the doors opened despite the -28 C weather, sporting green hair, painted faces, and Jets gear. Even the MTS restaurant had a 90 minute wait for a table. But the pain in the hockey lovers" frozen fingers and toes was soon forgotten when the doors finally opened, and they burst into a roaring rendition of God Save the Queen.