Nov 16, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Montreal Canadiens right wing Dale Weise (22) and Detroit Red Wings right wing Luke Glendening (41) fight for position with in the second period at Joe Louis Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
For the second time in three nights the Detroit Red Wings found themselves hosting an Original Six opponent at the Joe Louis Arena. Tonight it would be the Wings looking to slow down the red-hot Montreal Canadiens. Montreal came into tonight’s game on a 5 game winning streak while currently sitting atop both the Atlantic Division and NHL Standings with 27 points. The Canadiens have also won the previous three meetings against the Red Wings.
The first few minutes of the game seemed a little disjointed and fractured by both sides. Montreal, who played last night, missed a couple of their first shots on goal and both sides had several icing calls against them. It took about six minutes into the opening period before either team really seemed to find their legs. Riley Sheahan had a couple of good back-to-back scoring chances but was unable to to bury the puck. At the halfway point of the first period both teams had only tallied 3 shots on goal each. Montreal was given the first power-play opportunity of the game when Joakim Andersson was called for interference on Tomas Plekanec. The Detroit PK unit was up to the task and was able to kill of the penalty without much trouble.
With just a little over two minutes left on the clock the Red Wings got their first chance on the power-play when Lars Eller was called for holding on Justin Abdelkader. The Wings played the first half of the power-play well but were unable to produce any real good scoring chances. As time expired on both the power-play and the opening period Mickey Redmond summed it up best by saying the Wings needed to be sharper and put more pucks on net.
Just a little over one minute into the second period Tomas Jurco drew a hooking call from Sergei Gonchar and put the Red Wings back on the power-play. The Wings continued to look “too cute” and “too fancy” on the ensuing power play and were unable to generate a single shot or scoring chance. As the power-play drew to a close the Wings were immediately caught off guard on a bad line change and Montreal was able to break into the Detroit zone and Brandon Prust was easily able to beat Jimmy Howard glove-side on a wrist shot to open up the scoring.
Detroit once again found themselves on the power-play once again shortly after Prust’s goal but were once again unable to generate any shots or scoring chances. It was the Red Wings’ most spirited power-play effort up to this point but the effort produced no results. Montreal would once again find the back of the net shortly afterwards after P.K. Subban was able to re-direct a wide-right slap shot off the leg of Kyle Quincey and into the net behind Jimmy Howard. It was about as bad as a bad-bounce could get.
Detroit would once again get another power-play chance after Dale Weise was called for tripping and like the other three Red Wings’ power-plays, it was completely uneventful. The remainder of the second period continued to carry a fractured feel to it. Nothing seemed to be clicking at all for the Red Wings. The Wings continued to look for perfect passes or shots that weren’t there and nobody seemed to stand out at all. As the period drew to a close the Wings were forced to kill off a brief 5 on 3 Montreal power play and the period expired with 14 seconds of carryover penalty time.
The Wings started the third and final period by killing off the remaining 14 seconds of penalty time and only having 10 total shots on goal. Just under two minutes into the period Tomas Plekanec scored Montreal’s third goal of the game by netting a rebound shot off Jimmy Howard’s pads. The Red Wings were finally able to capitalize on their fifth power-play chance when Riley Sheahan backhanded a rebound behind Dustin Tokarski. Sheahan’s goal seemed to wake up the Joe Louis Arena crowd but the momentum would not last long.
Montreal’s fourth and final goal seemed to just sum up the whole night for the Red Wings. While on one knee behind the net in the trapezoid Brandon Gallagher was able to bank the puck off the back of Jimmy Howard and into the net. I’ve kept my faith through a lot of rough Red Wings’ games but after this goal I didn’t have much faith left in the tank.
The Wings were aggressive and pulled Howard with about 4 and a half minutes left in the game but it wouldn’t be enough to even come close to trying to come back.
This was a tough one to recap. Two nights ago the Wings played their best game of the season against Chicago and looked razor sharp, tonight they played one of their worst games of the season and looked completely dull. Sure, Montreal is a good team and had a couple of bounces go their way and they might have got away with a penalty or two, but the Red Wings didn’t look like the same team I saw play on Friday night. Maybe it was the NHLPA’s mandated day off yesterday? In reality the Wings got outplayed, were unable to capitalize on the few chances they had and the team had absolutely no love from the Hockey Gods or Lady Luck tonight. A complete recipe for a stinker.
It’s a tough way to end the weekend but luckily there’s still plenty of hockey to be played.