Red Wings at Canadiens
The Detroit Red Wings are still seeking their first victory of the season after an embarrassing performance last time out and hope to begin turning things around Monday, when they visit the improving Montreal Canadiens. The Red Wings, who began a tough four-game road trip with an 8-2 loss at Boston, are last in the league in goals allowed (4.40) due in part to an injury-depleted defense.
“We regressed,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill told reporters after the setback. “That game (on Saturday) is not even close to good enough in any stretch. That was a bad effort. Bad execution, bad effort, unacceptable. We better find a way to dig in and get better.” The Red Wings also visit Tampa Bay and Florida on their trip, but first they face a Montreal team that trounced them 10-1 in December and scored a total of 24 goals in four wins during the 2017-18 season series. The Canadiens, who missed the playoffs for the second time in three campaigns last season, have earned points in three of their first four games - with both of their wins coming against a high-powered Pittsburgh team. Montreal rallied from a two-goal deficit with three straight tallies and went on to post a 4-3 shootout win Saturday against the Penguins without Carey Price, who could return to try and improve upon his 13-4-1 lifetime record versus Detroit after missing the contest with the flu.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FS Detroit, TSN2, RDS (Montreal)
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (0-3-2): Detroit will be without Mike Green (virus) until next month and three other defensemen - Jonathan Ericsson, Danny DeKeyser and Trevor Daley - are questionable for Monday with upper-body injuries while rookie Dennis Cholowski (upper body) could return after missing two games. The Red Wings still are waiting for Thomas Vanek and Justin Abdelkader to record their first point of the season while Gustav Nyquist (four assists) owns a minus-8 rating. Dylan Larkin leads the team with three goals and five points while defenseman Nick Jensen has scored twice.
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (2-1-1): Tomas Tatar, who scored 115 goals while spending most of his first seven NHL seasons with the Red Wings, scored two goals and set up another in Saturday’s victory to tie for the team lead with four points. Paul Byron and defenseman Jeff Petry share the top spot with Tatar while tenacious right wing Brendan Gallagher has recorded two goals and a plus-3 rating. Tomas Plekanec registered four shots and a minus-1 rating in 8 minutes, 44 seconds of ice time during his season debut on Saturday, leaving him one game shy of 1,000 for his career.
OVERTIME
1. Canadiens 18-year-old rookie C Jesperi Kotkaniemi has recorded one assist and a plus-2 rating in his first four NHL games.
2. Detroit G Jimmy Howard, who was rested on Saturday, is 4-7-2 with an .871 save percentage against Montreal in his career.
3. Montreal is just 2-for-17 on the power play in the early going, with the goals coming from Tatar and RW Andrew Shaw.