Game 78: Montreal Canadiens vs. Detroit Red Wings
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Predators region: FanDuel Sports Network Detroit X
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
With Chris Kreider in the box for hooking,, the Tampa Bay Lightning opened the scoring on the New York Rangers on Monday night. Thirty-six seconds later, it was 2-0. The Rangers went back to the box nine seconds after the following centre-ice faceoff, and Brayden Point notched his 40th goal of the season on the Lightning’s second power-play of the night to get his team out to a sudden 3-0 lead. Despite testing Andrei Vasilvskiy with 39 shots, the Rangers could only put one of them in the net. Tampa Bay added two more goals before the night was done, but that offensive explosion in the span of 1:45 proved enough for the Lightning to get the win.
The Rangers, who were the closest team to Montreal in the standings entering the game, lost a second consecutive game, remain six points back of the Canadiens, and had their points percentage drop below that of the Detroit Red Wings to lose another spot in the race. At one point the favoured team due to holding the top tiebreaker of regulation wins, the Rangers are now running out of chances to make the post-season.
Record needed for 88 points
- (8) Montreal Canadiens: 1-3-1 (85 pts., 5 GR)
- (9) Detroit Red Wings: 4-1-1 (79 pts., 6 GR)
- (10) New York Rangers: 4-0-1 (79 pts., 5 GR)
- (11) New York Islanders: 4-0-2 (78 pts., 6 GR)
- (12) Columbus Blue Jackets: 5-0-1 (77 pts., 6 GR)
It’s those ninth-place Red Wings who are next up for Montreal in the only remaining game the Habs have versus a competitor in this wild-card fight. The Canadiens have returned home after a quick trip to Nashville to collect a fifth consecutive victory. Tacking a sixth onto that streak would just about secure the post-season position Montreal has been working so hard since Christmas to attain.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Red Wings |
|---|---|---|
| 38-30-9 | Record | 36-33-7 |
| 47.6% (27th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 47.6% (28th) |
| 2.99 (15th) | Goals per game | 2.83 (22nd) |
| 3.23 (24th) | Goals against per game | 3.13 (21st) |
| 20.8% (18th) | PP% | 27.9% (4th) |
| 80.7% (11th) | PK% | 69.5% (32nd) |
| 2-1-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 1-2-0 |
The Red Wings have kept themselves aloft in the playoff chase with wins in their last two games, They swept a short homestand that had the Carolina Hurricanes and slumping Florida Panthers stop by for visits, improving their home record to 21-16-3. Tonight, however, they are on the road where they have only managed a 2-7-1 mark since the 4 Nations Face-Off; five of their final six games will be played away from Little Caesars Arena.
The remaining schedule is stacked against the Red Wings, but tonight the recent stretches for the combatants are in their favour. The Canadiens will be playing a ninth game in the span of 15 days; one-ninth of the six-month season completed in the span of two weeks. You have to go back 18 days to cover that many Red Wings matches, and they haven’t played a back-to-back since March 24 and 25. The needle is therefore firmly pointed toward Detroit when it comes to physical readiness for tonight’s game.
The Canadiens were lucky that a short burst of offence in the second period versus the Predators was enough to stand up for a win. They had to hang on for much of the second half of the game as Jakub Dobes did his best Dominik Hasek impression between the pipes. Montreal can’t count on such a goaltending performance for a second game in a row, and needs to put its effort into a good start to keep from falling behind to a fresher team.
Detroit isn’t a good offensive squad in general, but their power play is elite, ranking fourth in the NHL. It doesn’t matter whether they’re playing at home (28.2%) or on the road (27.6%), they do their most damage when they put their most skilled players on the ice with some extra space to work with.
It’s one unit that does all the damage. Dylan Larkin (13 power-play goals), Patrick Kane (12), and Alex DeBrincat (12) all rank among the best scorers on the man advantage, and Lucas Raymond paces them all as the playmaker with a total of 38 power-play points that ranks third in the NHL. Moritz Seider completes the unit with 22 points as the lone blue-liner in the fivesome. Only the Predators and Calgary Flames score fewer goals at five-on-five than the Red Wings do, so he best way to keep them from gaining an early lead would be by staying out of the penalty box.
When the tables are turned, Detroit is dreadful at surviving for two minutes with only four defenders on the ice. They barely manage to kill off two penalties of every three they take. They provide a team an out with their atrocious penalty kill even with such a potent power play to work with. Therefore, whichever team’s top unit finishes with the most goals is likely the one that will be responsible for a win at the end of the 60 minutes.
