MONTREAL —  With puck drop only minutes away Saturday, crowds lined up on the snowy sidewalk outside of the Peel Pub, desperately trying to pack into the sports bar before game time.

“I swear my friends are inside,” one woman yelled to the imposing door man. “Just let us in, you won’t even notice us.”

While the young woman continued pleading her case, a dozen scalpers buzzed around the streets that surround the Bell Centre, scrambling to unload their remaining tickets onto passersby.

“I’m buying tickets, I’m selling tickets, tickets, tickets,” one man yelled, as he bounced up and down in a Drummond St. parking lot. “I’ve got great seats in the reds.”

Meanwhile, a pair of Toronto Maple Leafs supporters were showered with boos while walking past the thousands of Canadiens fans that lined the vacant lot outside the downtown arena.

After a nine-month layover and a labour dispute that left a sour taste in the mouths of fans across the island, hockey night is back in Montreal.

“I don’t hold grudges, let’s say when the teachers go on strike, do the parents not send their kids back to class,” said Jeff Smith, who bought tickets to the Canadiens home opener against Toronto only eight hours before the game. “It’s a great atmosphere, we’re glad to be here. It’s long overdue.”

In a bid to mend fences with the city’s diehard fans, team management pulled out all the stops Saturday night: enlisting pop rockers Simple Plan to play a pregame concert outside the Bell Centre, giving every ticket-holder a free beer and creating a general party atmosphere around the arena, which was been more or less vacant while the NHL’s players and owners wrangled over a new collective bargaining agreement for what seemed like an eternity to most fans.

“I’m just glad they’re back and now we can have a nice run to the playoffs,” said Richard Zorzid, who drove to Montreal from Toronto to see the game. “It’s always a good time, a blast (in Montreal). We’re gonna go bar-hopping after the game so it should be a great night.”

His brother Adam interjected, saying while he is a lifelong Maple Leafs fan he didn’t care who won the opener as long as the postgame bar crawl was “epic.”

The influx of sports tourists and jersey-clad fans throughout the bars and restaurants that line downtown Montreal were a welcome sight to the service industry workers who’ve been among the hardest hit by the second NHL lockout in eight years. But despite an expected spike in their business, many workers aren’t ready to forgive the NHL and its players.

“I’m glad it’s back, but we could have used this months ago,” said one downtown bar manager, who wished to remain anonymous. “It’s a cheesy line, but we saw millionaires and billionaires argue while the people who need hockey to pay their rent were hurting badly. It pisses me off, I’m glad business is picking up, but for a lot of people it’s too late — the damage is already done.”

The manager said his bar had to cut employee’s shifts, which caused some to quit their jobs in hopes of finding more work in another field.

ccurtis@montrealgazette.com

Twitter:@titocurtis