Red Wings-Canadiens wrap-up: recovering from a Winged Wheel Wreck

The Detroit Red Wings dropped a 5-1 decision to the Montreal Canadiens in the Wings’ home opener, with Detroit taking a 1-0 lead, but surrendering 3 1st-period goals and 2 2nd-period goals en route to a difficult opening-night setback.

Things don’t get any easier as the Wings kick off a home-and-home series with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night.

As you might expect, the Canadiens’ status as a 1-and-1 team had its press corps, both in English and French, exultant, suggesting that nothing can stop the great Canadiens machine. Sportsnet’s Eric Engels marveled at the ways in which the Canadiens’ newer players have “seamlessly” been integrated into the team…

You have to credit them. Zachary Bolduc and Oliver Kapanen have scored in each of the Canadiens’ first two games of the season, Noah Dobson and Ivan Demidov each registered assists in the team’s 5-1 win over Detroit on Thursday, and all four of them have appeared as though they’ve been in this system for quite some time.

But doesn’t that say even more about the system than it does the players? Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis would agree with that. To take it a step further, St. Louis said what’s really enabled new players to quickly integrate into the system is how comfortable his other players are with how the team wants to play.

“I think (the new players) came in at a good time because there’s a lot of continuity around them, so they’re not just being coached by the coaches, they’re being coached by the players too,” St. Louis said. “We’re very direct in how we want to play, and the continuity is enabling some teaching and getting details down. A lot of players can help the new guys integrate themselves with all the details, so I’m not surprised.”

St. Louis went a step further, plucking holes in the Wings’ game plan–literally and figuratively:

“Detroit plays with a good, hard, fast forecheck, and they’re very aggressive, so if you’re able to bypass that, there’s holes,” said St. Louis. “We played fast in possession against their aggression, which allowed us to go get odd-man rushes we capitalized on.”

The Canadiens played their system, with all the new guys appearing as though they’ve been playing it for years. Part of that is because they appear to fit so well, but a bigger part of it is that the Canadiens are all on the same page. St. Louis defines that as follows:

“To me, when anybody’s watching hockey, they’re usually focused on where the puck is, and the collective game is the other four guys — What are they doing? And also, when we don’t have the puck, we’ll have a defender on the puck, what are the other four guys doing? The collective game is you’ve got to be connected on both sides of the puck, offensively and defensively, and I find that we looked really fast at times because of our collective game. We have predictability inside of that, so we know where to go. So, the guy who’s on the puck, he knows where most options are going to be. And defensively, it’s the same thing… If you watch us play, I think you can feel that we do have a good collective game.”

Now I’m not going to disagree for a second that the Red Wings were horrible in the neutral zone, turning over pucks which facilitated odd-man rushes and fast-break hockey plays, mostly because the Wings were too focused on the puck carrier, and not his teammates…But the Habs knew that.

So did the Red Wings.

“Hopefully [our neutral zone play] leads to more turnovers because that’s where we’re really dangerous,” he said. “We have a lot of guys who, once they get going, can really make plays.”

The Red Wings enabled them on Thursday.

“I thought we made it pretty easy on them,” said Larkin. “Odd-man rushes… We know that’s their game, we talked about it.”

RDS.ca’s Dave Levesque offered the following (which is roughly translated from French)…

Martin St-Louis puts a lot of emphasis on the collective game so he was necessarily satisfied with the performance of his flock. But most importantly, he liked how they managed the game after taking a four-goal lead at the end of the second period.

“A couple of years ago, we had answers, but we weren’t able to handle the game if we tied up or got the lead. I loved how we handled the second half of the game.”

And most importantly, the team driver is looking forward to the way his men behaved after the Red Wings took the lead pretty quickly in the game. They were playing their first game of the season in front of their spectators, they came out of the blocks like lions, but the Canadiens resisted.

“We played a team game. After a little difficult start, we calmed down and had a very good answer,” St-Louis said.

Zachary Bolduc, who is taking his first steps with the Canadian, also noticed the collective spirit that drives the team’s game.

“As a team, we play the right way, it makes it easier for the five players who are on the ice. The chemistry is building quietly and it’s fun to be part of that.”

Levesque continued with a quip from captain Nick Suzuki for Le Journal de Montreal:

“Every trio is dangerous and even in the defenders. [Alexandre] Carrier and [Mike] Matheson scored. It’s hard to defend against us,” said Nick Suzuki.

“We have more tools, but it has to play together on both sides of the ice. Talent will take you to a certain place, but it will not make you go over the obstacles constantly,” won Martin St-Louis who also believes that the newcomers integrate with coherence into the philosophy of the group.

“They come at a good time because we have a lot of continuity with a lot of players. You include a couple and they don’t just get led by the coach, they get led by the players too.”

RDS.ca, La Presse’s Guillaume Lefrancois, Radio-Canada and the Canadiens’ website all offer recaps with various degrees of quotes (or none at all, in the Habs website’s case; the same is true for Global News’s Brian Wilde and the Montreal Gazette’s Herb Zurkowsky’s recap), but Montreal Hockey Now’s Marc Dumont best describes the Canadiens press’s take on one game in October:

Is Steve Yzerman the most overrated executive of the modern era? He tried to press fast-forward on the rebuild at the worst possible time by adding several veterans to the lineup, and though some young players are finally starting to shine, it’s impossible to ignore that the Canadiens leapfrogged the Red Wings in just a couple of rebuilding seasons.

There’s no doubt that the Red Wings have their flaws, but Yzerman didn’t dump the team into the Detroit River on Thursday night.

Anyway, NHL.com’s Dave Hogg offers quotes from both teams in his recap…

Dylan Larkin scored for Detroit in its season opener. John Gibson allowed five goals on 13 shots in his Red Wings debut before being removed at 17:12 of the second period. Cam Talbot made four saves in relief.

“We just played the game,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “We didn’t play to win the game.”

After allowing an early first-period goal, Dobes shut out Detroit the rest of the way.

“He’s a young goalie with a crazy style,” Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky said. “I laugh when I watch him play, because I don’t know how he makes it work. Somehow, he does.”

The Red Wings scored on their first power play of the season. Patrick Kane took the puck below the goal line and faked to go behind the net before slipping a pass to Larkin, who beat Dobes at 3:50 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.

Zack Bolduc tied the game 1-1 at 10:14, getting behind the Red Wings defense and beating Gibson for his second goal of the season. Bolduc has scored in each of his first two games with Montreal after being traded from the St. Louis Blues on July 1.

“I think we’ve got a lot of talent and we’re dangerous all over the lineup,” Canadiens forward Jake Evans said. “We’re a tougher team to defend and the new guys like Zack are part of that.”

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff usually issues the least optimistic recap after a Wings loss, and tonight’s recap is no exception, comparing the Wings to characters from Dazed and Confused…

An NHL scout, heading for the Little Caesars Arena exit following the Detroit Red Wings’ season opener, offered an appropriate critique.

“Seen this movie before,” he said.

Haven’t we all? There were so many parallels to past failures, it almost felt like a parody. Except no one is laughing, because the Red Wings remain an NHL laughingstock.

A 5-1 season-opening loss to the Montreal Canadiens hit on all the lowlights that have become customary norms during a Red Wings season.

A year ago, the Wings opened at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens had lost handily the night before. They were playing their backup goalie in the second game of back-to-backs. And they whipped the Red Wings 6-3, chasing Detroit starting netminder Ville Husso in the process.

The Habs had lost handily the night before. They were playing their backup goalie in the second game of back-to-backs. And they whipped the Red Wings, chasing Detroit starting netminder John Gibson in the process..

The Free Press’s Helene St. James was of a mind to suggest that the Wings were giving everyone more of the same as well…

It was only one game, but it was a game that went so badly one player referred to it as being ‘ shell shocked.’

Minutes after the buzzer sounded on an embarrassing 5-1 season-opening loss, Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin sounded like he did so many times last season: Dejected.

“We shot ourselves in the foot so many times that we didn’t have time to get to our game and create offense,” he said after Atlantic Division (and Original Six) rival Montreal Canadiens clobbered the Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday, Oct. 9. “And, you know, it’s a pretty disappointing lack of execution. And that’s really what it comes down to. So the good news to that is it’s our first game. We got a chance to fix all that.”

The Wings next play the Maple Leafs in a home and home, at LCA on Saturday and in Toronto on Monday afternoon. Another performance like Thursday’s, and it’s going to be a rough opening week. The Wings gave up five unanswered goals after Larkin’s early power play conversion, and goalie John Gibson finished the night on the bench. That’s how badly it went.

“We came out, I thought it was a great start, really good intensity,” Moritz Seider said. “And then the game kind of slipped away from us, we weren’t detailed. They just kind of outworked us, outskated us, got a lot of great opportunities around our net. Nothing Gibby could have done there to prevent goals, so that’s definitely up on us. Obviously a disappointing night.”

I don’t think that Gibson was at his best, but still…

Thankfully, coach McLellan came into the press room in a mood…

“Bantam, midget, I don’t even know if they call the leagues that anymore,” McLellan said. “Junior. You don’t give up two-on-ones. If a D’s down, a forward covers. You manage the puck, you don’t turn it over. I thought we got off to a good start, the start we wanted. But our game management – you’re going to hear that all year from me – because clearly it’s still a huge issue.

“We just played the game. We didn’t play to win the game. And we have no chance. And the players will say, they probably have already said, that we can fix this, we can win. It’s time. It’s time. We just spent three weeks, 3½ weeks at training camp dealing with these situations. Now, if it happened once or twice in a game, it would be okay. But there was seven, maybe six or seven outnumbered rushes at the end of the first period from the 10-minute mark on. It’s unacceptable. We’ll have to drill it back into them.”

Larkin and coach McLellan were on the same page, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen noted:

“Todd’s going to come in here and if he’s harder, I can see it, ” Larkin said. “I don’t really have a good answer for you, but it was out on the ice. We showed it. And like I said, it’s even more disappointing because it was such a special night. The crowd was so good and those three guys playing in their first NHL games, you always want to make it special. And there wasn’t much going on that was special.”

McLellan’s frustration resulted from his team’s forecheck being rendered ineffective by some Montreal two-on-one breaks. Canadiens got behind Detroit players too often. Larkin said the game felt chaotic “and a lot of the chaos was self-inflicted.”

“We just spent three weeks, three and a half weeks at training camp dealing with these situations,” McLellan said. “Now if it happened once or twice in a game, be okay. But there’s seven, maybe six or seven outnumbered rushes at the end of the first period from the 10-minute mark on and it’s unacceptable. We’ll have to drill it back into them.

If the Red Wings can’t make their forecheck work against Montreal, then how are going to make it work against higher-octane offenses like Edmonton Oilers, Vegas Golden Knights, Tampa Bay Lightning or the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“I thought we started the game well, we were on our toes, we scored, we gave up that first goal, Exactly something we pre-scouted and an individual or two made an error,” McLellan said. “… You could feel the air go out a little bit, but we should be able to keep and sustain. All of a sudden, you’re chasing the game and the coach is bitching and complaining about outnumbered rushes. You lose your offensive edge, too, and now you’re caught in between. Did we create some chances down the stretch? Yeah, but in garbage time, it doesn’t matter.”

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan took note of similar remarks from McLellan and Larkin…

The boo birds grew in number after Montreal’s fifth goal and serenaded the Wings off the ice after the second period. It was even worse after the game. But, probably deserved.

“We earned the Bronx boos or whatever you want to call them, we earned those,” coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s up to us to fix it. If we just play fundamentally sound hockey, we wouldn’t be putting ourselves in that situation. Until we get that down and get back in its box if you will, we’ll have trouble winning games.”

Dylan Larkin scored 3 minutes, 50 seconds into the game, on the power play, giving the Wings a 1-0 lead. That was pretty much the highlight of the evening. There wasn’t much good after that.

Too many misplays, way too many odd-man rushes allowed, and game management issues that McLellan has wanted improved since he arrived in December.

…

“We just didn’t execute,” Larkin said. “It seemed like we didn’t do the simple things. We shot ourselves in the foot so much that we didn’t have time to get to our game and create offense. It’s pretty disappointing, the lack of execution. We got out there and it was chaotic. A lot of it was self-inflicted. We just really did not help ourselves.”

Only one group was excluded from McLellan’s ire, as Kulfan noted:

Rookies Emmitt Finnie (12 minutes 22 seconds, one shot on net), Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (five hits, minus-two rating in 14:34) and Axel Sandin-Pellikka (22:34 of ice time) didn’t get on the scoresheet and will have an ugly memory of their NHL debuts.

“I can’t recall them being involved in a lot of the crap, if you will,” McLellan said. “It’s a different game. That team had already played once. So the three of them get in and experience it and our team wasn’t good around them. But I don’t think they were involved in the major issues we had.”

Seider and Larkin told DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills that solving the Wings’ defensive issues isn’t rocket science:

“We just need to count guys,” Seider said. “We can’t linger forward when we have people flying behind us, especially the whole D-core. I think we need to do a better job.”

Detroit found itself facing a 4-1 deficit at 5:17 of the second period when Bolduc redirected Alexandre Carrier’s shot into the back of the net for his second goal of the night. Near the end of the frame, goalie John Gibson was replaced by netminder Cam Talbot after Juraj Slafkovsky’s power-play tally to make it 5-1 at 17:12.

Neither Original Six club found the back of the net in the third period. Overall, Gibson made eight saves and Talbot recorded four saves in relief for Detroit while netminder Jakub Dobes finished with 30 saves for Montreal.

“Anytime you give up a goal late, at the end of periods, it’s a killer,” Larkin said. “We came out and then they got the fourth. It’s a similar story; they get behind us. We didn’t do much good. We left Gibby out to dry. It was tough.”

On Thursday, forward prospects Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and Emmitt Finnie as well as defense prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka made their respective NHL debuts with the Red Wings. It marked the first time since 2018-19 that Detroit had three skaters play their first NHL contest on Opening Night.

“They’re special players,” Larkin said about the trio of 20-year-old skaters. “No doubt about it. They had glimpses. I would be lying if you looked at anyone on the ice for us tonight that really stood out and played well. No one really played well. I’m not hitting the panic button. I believe in this group. I believe that we can correct all the things – the missed assignments, lack of execution – I believe we can clean that up.”

Sean Shapiro summed things up well:

In his public comments McLellan ignored the silver linings, Dylan Larkin did the same. Instead of finding positives, both found additional negatives, even finding ways to ignore positive probing questions about how the three rookies played.

And that’s what Detroit, frankly, needs this season. For a team that’s been vocal about finding a new standard, this loss was the first key opportunity to prove they actually care about living up to those statements.

Larkin, multiple times, said he wasn’t panicking, but his eyes and demeanor in the media availability told a more important story. There was slight fear and frustration, dealing with the reality that after all the positive talk about the turnaround he, once again, was facing questions on opening night about a laugher in the wrong direction.

The reality here is this — the Red Wings haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt, even from themselves — that they’ll figure this out. And for the players and the coaches, falling flat like they did in Montreal has to become an opportunity, a Game 1 wake-up call that if this whole re-build is going to work, they are going to have to find a way to hold themselves accountable.

I still believe that the Red Wings can un-wreck themselves, that they can teach themselves how to be a competent team again, under coach McLellan’s tutelage and under the current leadership group, and I believe that this team can make progress this season.

But the rubber meets the road now, and the Wings woke up in a Winged Wheel Wreck. “Fixing it” time starts Friday at practice, and gets put to the test starting on Saturday evening vs. the Maple Leafs.

Multimedia:

Highlights: NHL.com and Sportsnet posted YouTube highlight clips: