Red Wings Rocked by Montreal Canadiens in 6-1 Loss

The Detroit Red Wings had a great chance to seize some early season momentum in the front end of a back-to-back slate against two struggling teams. Detroit faced off against Montreal first, a team that the Red Wings have owned for quite some time.

Unfortunately for Detroit, their return to Montreal would be a horror show, losing 6-1 on Saturday evening.

Dylan Larkin opened the scoring on an uncontested shot just seconds into a power play to give the Red Wings an early 1-0 lead.

But a pair of penalties would put the Red Wings short handed, and after killing a Montreal chance, Detroit yielded a goal, and then another on the power play courtesy of a Mike Hoffman wrister.  When Filip Zadina took a high sticking penalty, Montreal had yet another chance on the man advantage. The Red Wings killed it off, but the parade to the penalty box killed any momentum Detroit had after the Larkin goal (and.a subsequent Adam Erne shot that rang off the post) and led to a 2-1 deficit heading into the first intermission.

The Canadiens had an early three-on-one chance in the second period but whiffed on it when a Hoffman rebound chance was missed by Brendan Gallagher. The Red Wings looked sluggish and the Canadiens took advantage on a poor change, and took a 3-1 lead with just about 16 minutes to play. But after a nice chance from Moritz Seider that whistled wide, the Red Wings earned another chance on the power play.

Detroit had its chances, but couldn’t convert as the very lively Habs crowd chanted “Defense.” And then minutes later, it was the Montreal offense showing up again, as Mathieu Perreault added another as the Habs jumped to a 4-1 lead. Perreault would score again, chasing Greiss from the net and pushing the Montreal advantage to 5-1.

Detroit enjoyed a power play to start the third period after a call late in the second, but there wasn’t much to show for it. Givani Smith would take a penalty mid way through the period, and the Canadiens kept the pressure in Detroit’s zone for nearly the entire two minutes.  Montreal added an empty net goal with under seven minutes, giving Perreault a hat trick and the Habs a 6-1 lead.

The Red Wings will need a better effort on Sunday as they head to Chicago. Tonight was a reminder that this is still very much.a work in progress.