The Detroit Red Wings won a critical 4-2 decision over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday evening, squeezing the Eastern Conference standings into an club sandwich of teams atop each other by single layers of points.
Detroit could have sat 7 points behind the Habs if they lose, and now they’re 3 points behind ’em.
This was far from a perfect game, in no small part thanks to Samuel Montembeault’s 41-save performance, partially because of the Habs’ pluck in the 2nd and 3rd, and partially, honestly, because the Wings aren’t quite able to play a full 60 minutes yet, but when the team did connect, like Lucas Raymond did with Alex DeBrincat on the 2-0 goal, the Wings were making beautiful things happen:
There were definitely some hairy moments after the Red Wings built 3-0 and 4-1 leads, and the score read 4-2 for a reason, especially against a Canadiens team that had won 13 of 20…
But when the Wings were able to kill a delay-of-game penalty with ease after coach Todd McLellan unsuccessfully challenged a Michael Rasmussen goal that was negated due to goaltender interference, halfway through the 3rd period…The feeling was that somehow, things were going to end up going well.
The Montreal Gazette’s Herb Zurkowsky reports that the Canadiens felt that they’d been out-Habbed on Thursday night…
They did to us what we’ve been doing to other teams,” Dach told reporters in Detroit. “They were on top. They made it hard to break pucks out. We didn’t get enough pucks below the goal-line, get on our forecheck and make life uncomfortable for them. We dug a hole and couldn’t dig ourselves out of it.
“We kind of put ourselves behind the eight-ball,” Dach added. “I think as a group we’ve grown and matured enough to the point where we can turn the page on this, take the lessons that we need to learn and move on to Saturday’s game.”
And Sportsnet’s Eric Engels says that the Canadiens should have seen this one coming because the team was unable to hold a regular practice on Wednesday, after playing a couple of pedestrian games…
Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson, centre Kirby Dach and coach Martin St. Louis all referenced faulty execution when speaking with reporters at Little Caesars Arena afterwards, and we thought that might be something the Canadiens might suffer with after watching them work out on Wednesday.
It was their first practice in 10 days, and there wasn’t a whole lot they could get out of it with five of their regulars missing it for treatment.
“We tried to work on a couple things, but it’s hard,” said St. Louis. “We only had 14 skaters; it felt like a youth hockey practice.”
But the Canadiens were willing to give the Red Wings credit for beating them, too:
“They had much more urgency, pace, energy and execution, so we spent way too much time in our zone,” [coach St-Louis] said. “Offensively, we were one and done in the first, which made it hard to grab momentum. First half of the game that lacked ingredients that make us successful…”
Even if the Canadiens started to incorporate some of those as the game went on, they missed a few too many to complete the comeback.
On the one hand, they were fortunate that teams they were chasing in the standings — the Columbus Blue Jackets and Ottawa Senators — also lost in regulation on Thursday. On the other, they allowed the Wings to gain ground, while the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers did the same and tightened a race that already featured next to zero separation.
The Canadiens will kick themselves over that.
They’ll be honest with themselves about how it happened, and we’ll see how quickly they can correct it.
“We’ve grown and matured enough that we can turn the page on this,” said Dach, and we’d give him the benefit of the doubt on that.
While Dach and St-Louis told NHL.com’s Dave Hogg that the Canadiens, who swept the Wings in a home-and-home in December, got “out-started”…
“They did to us what we’ve done to a lot of other teams,” Dach said. “They made it hard to break out of our zone and we didn’t do enough on the forecheck to make life uncomfortable for them.”
Jonatan Berggren gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead at 13:00 of the first period, taking a pass from Larkin below the goal line and scoring with a snap shot from the right circle.
Alex DeBrincat made it 2-0 at 19:56, scoring his 20th goal of the season with a snap shot from a tight angle below the left circle off a feed from Lucas Raymond just after a power play expired.
“I would have liked more urgency and energy from the team at the start,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We seemed to have more energy in the second period.”
The Red Wings gave themselves full credit for working on their “problem issues”…
Andrew Copp pushed it to 3-0 with Detroit’s second short-handed goal of the season at 4:25 of the second. He skated in alone and scored with a wrist shot from the slot after Simon Edvinsson blocked a shot.
“Teams are probably coming in thinking they can take advantage of our penalty kill because our numbers have not been good,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “They had a chance to strike and swing the momentum back to their side, but our group did a real good job.”
And while the Canadiens made what looked like a romp a closer game than it should have been…
Dach’s wraparound goal pulled Montreal within 3-1 at 5:29, but Larkin restored the three-goal lead with a power-play goal at 7:50 when he took a pass below the right circle and jammed in the second attempt from in tight.
Kaiden Guhle beat Talbot with a point shot through traffic to make it 4-2 at 11:06, but the Canadiens failed to cut further into the deficit despite 13 shots in the third period.
The game really did hinge upon that 3rd period PK after the failed goal challenge, as the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan noted:
The Wings then killed a delay of game penalty at 9:39 of the third period after coach Todd McLellan challenged a goalie interference penalty on Michael Rasmussen, erasing Rasmussen’s would-be goal. But the penalty kill came through with a key stop.
“They (the coaching staff) trusted us with the kill and obviously it’s a great feeling getting that feeling from your coach,” Seider said. “We did the job and that gave us a big boost and it feels real good.”
McLellan had confidence in the penalty kill, but also felt Rasmussen’s goal should have been allowed.
“We asked the players to be aggressive and I still think it’s a goal or I wouldn’t have challenged it,” McLellan said. “Ras had every right to go in after a loose puck and made every effort to avoid (the goaltender, and Montreal defenseman David) Savard had his stick on his hips. When we challenged, it was ‘OK, it’s going to go, it’s going to go one way or the other and if it goes against, let’s get ready and we can do it’. They (the penalty kill) did a real good job.”
Dylan Larkin is 700 games into his NHL career, so he was willing to admit that tonight’s win mattered to him personally as well as his team…
“Huge win for us and memorable night for myself,” Larkin said. “It’s going to be memorable the way we played and hopefully we can build off that. After that trip, coming home against a team we didn’t play well against before Christmas (two consecutive losses) and we’re chasing in the standings, to have a nice night like that is awesome and something we can build off of.”
McLellan also saw the two losses to Montreal the weekend before Christmas and challenged the Wings.
“We looked slower and a little indecisive (in those two losses) and we wanted them to give us a guideline of whether we’ve made progress,” McLellan said. “We were aggressive and quicker and played faster throughout the whole game. There’s always ebbs and flows and dips but for the most part that was how we looked 10 days to two weeks ago, so that’s a good sign. I liked our start. Everybody got into the game.”
Larkin agreed, as he told Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff…
“I think we skated and I thought we were the better skating team. We got up the ice, forechecked and caused a lot of turnovers and then we looked to shoot. We got 45 shots. I think that might be a season high for our group (it is).
“We shot it, we got it back and continued to play offense. Even in the third period we had some sustained offense and grinded them down, drew a penalty late. That was huge. So our whole team game was pretty dialed in tonight.”
And Duff made sure to include a comment from coach McLellan regarding Larkin’s resolve:
In his brief tenure as coach of the Red Wings, Todd McLellan is quickly coming to appreciate much about Larkin beyond his skill. He’s leading the team with 21 goals.
“I think he is the player he is because of his drive and his competitiveness,” McLellan said. “We talked about this with some people in here before he came into the league in diapers. All young players do. And this is his family. He’s grown up with it.
“He’s a true Red Wing. Seven hundred games means a lot. Original six team Detroit. So that’s really remarkable in my mind. And over and above that, all the things that he does for the team when he puts the equipment on, but also when he isn’t wearing the equipment. And that’s likely why they’ve chosen him as the captain a while ago.”
Larkin told DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills that the Wings played with a more even effort…
“Since Todd has come in, we’ve focused on our starts,” Larkin said. “We had a good start tonight, and he challenged us after the first to follow it up in the second. It’s been a roller coaster a little bit too much and I thought tonight was much more stable. We played much better for 60 minutes.”
And, among Mills’ bank of post-game comments:
McLellan on what he liked most about how Detroit got two points on Thursday
“I liked our start. I thought everybody got into the game. We were aggressive and looked fast. I challenged the group before the game because part of the pre-scout was the two games they had played against Montreal pre-Christmas. In that game, we looked slower and a little indecisive. I wanted them to give us a guideline on whether we made progress. I thought we were aggressive, played quicker and faster.”
Larkin on what he thought the biggest difference was on Thursday compared to how the Red Wings looked against Canadiens last month
“I think we skated and were the better-skating team. We got up the ice, forechecked and caused a lot of turnovers. We looked to shoot. We got 45 shots. I think that might be a season high for our group. We shot it, got it back and continued to play offense. Even in the third period, we had some sustained offense and grinded them down. Drew a penalty late, that was huge. Our whole team game was pretty dialed in tonight.”
Seider on the momentum gained from Copp’s short-handed goal
“I thought [Copp] played really well tonight. The whole line created a lot of chances, turned their D and played in the offensive zone. He’s been really dialed on the PK and obviously is a big part of our success right now and in the future.”
Finally, The Athletic’s Max Bultman graced us with a few post-game thoughts. Of particular note:
The Red Wings were the better team Thursday night. But make no mistake: Montreal is coming. You can already make a good case that the Canadiens, despite getting a later start on their rebuild, have already caught up to Detroit, the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa in the Atlantic Division, and will be right there with them competing for the playoffs in the coming years.
Some of that has come via the draft, landing a first pick in Juraj Slafkovský and finding an absolute steal in the second round in Lane Hutson, but it’s also been via some savvy trades by Kent Hughes — bringing in players such as Kirby Dach, Mike Matheson and Patrik Laine.
All of those players had risk attached when the Canadiens traded for them, but for the most part, they’ve been successes in Montreal.
I’ll be curious to see whether Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman takes any such swings on players who can join his rising young core as this year’s trade deadline approaches. Detroit isn’t in a position to go hunting for rentals and doesn’t have the splashiest stable of pending UFAs to unload, but making a deal for a player who will be around awhile might be its best move at this deadline.
And as Montreal’s quick rise through the rebuilding process has shown — remember, they were in the Stanley Cup Final in 2021 — the right move can be a good way to accelerate a timeline.
What do you think about that idea?
And it should be noted that these teams will meet one more time, on April 8th, so we should know much more about both teams when they conclude their season series.
Multimedia:
Highlights: Sportsnet posted a 10:13 highlight clip:
The NHL posted a 10:23 highlight clip:
Post-game: The Canadiens’ website posted clips of comments from Kirby Dach, Samuel Montembeault, Mike Matheson and coach Martin St-Louis;
The Red Wings posted a 10:34 clip of Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider and coach Todd McLellan’s post-game comments:
And the Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a 5:23 clip of Larkin, Seider and coach McLellan’s remarks:
Photos: The Detroit News posted a 42-image gallery;
The Associated Press posted an 8-image gallery.
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary: