Red Wings hope to notch 1st win vs, Montreal
The Detroit Red Wings will be looking for their first win of the season when they visit the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Monday.
The Red Wings (0-3-2) are one of two teams, along with the Florida Panthers (0-2-1), still looking for their first win in this young NHL season.
The Red Wings have lost their first five games of a season for the first time since 1980-81.
Detroit is coming off an 8-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday and have been outscored 23-11 this season. Their minus-12 goal differential is the worst in the NHL by four goals.
The Red Wings had a meeting before practice in Montreal on Sunday.
"I showed 19 (video) clips today," coach Jeff Blashill told the Detroit Free Press. "Not one of them were clips where we didn't have enough talent to win. That's not the case. We have good enough players to win, without a shadow of a doubt. We have to make sure that we are doing the work and winning the battles that it takes to win."
Detroit center Frans Nielsen said the Red Wings made it easy for the Bruins and that's going to have to change for the Red Wings to get into the win column.
"They didn't really have to work for the scoring chances they got," Nielsen told NHL.com. "I think we basically gave them odd-man rushes against. We've got to do a way better job of managing the puck and being harder to play against. This is just so far from what we want to be."
Detroit goaltender Jonathan Bernier made 31 saves against the Bruins.
Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser aggravated a hand injury against the Bruins in the first period and did not return. It is expected either rookie Dennis Cholowski or Luke Witkowski will play in his place against the Canadiens.
The Red Wings will be playing the second game of a four-game road trip against the Canadiens, who are off to a 2-1-1 start after coming back for a 4-3 shootout win at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
The Canadiens, who lost 3-0 to the Los Angeles Kings in Montreal's home opener Thursday, trailed the Penguins 2-0 after one period. Tomas Tatar had his first two goals as a Canadien and Brendan Gallagher scored for the Canadiens against the Penguins to help rally them to the win.
Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin, off to a slow start this season, scored the game deciding goal in the shootout and had his first point of the season, an assist on Tatar's second goal. It was his 100th career assist.
"We knew we weren't playing the right way or skating," Drouin told the team's website of the Canadiens start against the Penguins. "We were going back to those bad habits from last year and not throwing pucks at the net. You look at those goals, they're not pretty to be honest."
"I think the whole team, we pulled together, it wasn't just our line," Tatar, who played with Gallagher and Phillip Danault, told montrealcanadiens.com. "Everybody played well since the second period, and we had a lot of pressure since the second period started and I think everybody deserves the credit."
Goaltender Antti Niemi, who started in place of Carey Price, who was given the night off because of the flu, made 25 saves and stopped Penguins stars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby in the shootout.
The Canadiens had the day off Sunday.
