The Detroit Red Wings officially kicked off the 2025-26 regular season on Thursday night at home against the Montreal Canadiens. Any time a new season begins, there is a natural optimism that comes with it. That feeling was only magnified when Dylan Larkin connected on a power-play goal in the first five minutes of the game.
Unfortunately, from that point it was all Canadiens with the deciding goal in this game coming just seconds before the end of the first period. After Larkin's goal, the Canadiens were able to take the lead back with goals by Zack Bolduc and Oliver Kapanen.
However, even with Montreal taking the lead, it was still a one-goal game. The Red Wings could certainly try to regroup at the end of the period once they got to the locker room. Montreal had other plans as Nick Suzuki brought the puck into the zone before dropping it off to Mike Matheson, who took the puck and was able to rip a shot that beat John Gibson to give Montreal a 3-1 lead.
Mike Matheson end the period in a HUGE way 💥 pic.twitter.com/z92kVzxTnK
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) October 10, 2025
Canadiens show why they are a playoff team and why the Detroit Red Wings are still searching for answers
While the game wasn't completely lost, the Red Wings never were able to get much closer and the Canadiens would actually add two more goals in the second period that really put it out of reach.
This is a perfect example of what good hockey teams are able to do and why the Detroit Red Wings might still be on the outside looking in this season. A two-goal lead is tough to overcome but not impossible, and if the Red Wings could have just cut the lead to one it would have been a completely different game.
The Red Wings certainly had their chances and would out-shoot the Canadiens 31-17 and won close to 58 percent of the faceoffs. Even with all that, Larkin used the phrase 'shell-shocked' after the game and that goal at the end of the first period seemed to shake the Red Wings to the point they couldn't recover which really highlights the gap between a team like the Canadiens and the Red Wings.