Game 82: 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 Red Wings region: Bally Sports Detroit
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN_
Monday night’s NHL slate saw most of the teams battling for the final open spots in the Eastern Conference win their games. The New York Islanders beat Jake Allen four times on 19 shots to claim the third seed in the Metropolitan Division, which left only the second wild-card to be contested. The Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, and Detroit Red Wings all won their games, leaving that battle, which also includes the Philadelphia Flyers, to go down to the finals days of the regular season.
The Red Wings came close to slipping out of the race by going down three goals to the Montreal Canadiens, but pulled their way back into the contest, forced their way to a tying goal in the dying minutes, and got the winner in overtime in front of their home crowd.
Washington’s win kept the Capitals as the favoured team to take the spot. They have 89 points just like Detroit, but have secured the regulation-wins tiebreaker. If they win again tonight, there’s nothing any team can do behind them to knock them from their position. However, the Capitals are playing the Flyers in a head-to-head battle that, Philadelphia hopes, could end with the contestants on exactly the same record with exactly the same numbers in the three win columns. If the Capitals fail to earn the win, the Red Wings have their path to a post-season spot: they just need to beat Montreal for a second consecutive game.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Red Wings |
|---|---|---|
| 30-37-14 | Record | 40-32-9 |
| 44.8% (29th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 44.3% (30th) |
| 2.81 (27th) | Goals per game | 3.35 (9th) |
| 3.42 (26th) | Goals against per game | 3.32 (24th) |
| 17.7% (26th) | PP% | 23.1% (9th) |
| 76.5% (23rd) | PK% | 79.3% (17th) |
| 1-0-2 | Head-to-Head Record | 2-0-1 |
Into that boiling cauldron will drop another Habs defenceman to make his NHL debut. Last night it was Lane Hutson faring decently well considering the circumstances, with a point in 22 minutes of ice time. In tonight’s game, he will be joined by Logan Mailloux, who gets rewarded for the good work he’s done to keep the Laval Rocket in the AHL playoff chase in his rookie season.
All the main pieces added to the organization over the past several years of the rebuild are beginning to come together, and the coaching staff will get a look at Mailloux in an intense game situation to see how he fares among his peers. The coaching staff will have a bit more control over the matchups this evening and can pick the spots for their new recruits. Perhaps there will even be a power play for Mailloux and Hutson to really show off their offensive skills.
The opponent is looking to extend its 2023-24 season, but for the Habs it’s all about setting up for next year. As things currently stand, the battle for roster spots is going to be on the blue line. The Canadiens will need to scratch two healthy blue-liners from tonight’s contest, and they still have Kaiden Guhle and Arber Xhekaj out injured and David Reinbacher playing in Laval. The game may not mean anything as far as this year’s team is concerned. For the off-season when Kent Hughes needs to decide which defencemen to keep for those roster battles, even this one game could mean a great deal.
