CANADIENS
Montreal

RED WINGS
Detroit

Game Notes:

Original six. Every time the Canadiens meet the Red Wings since Detroit rejoined the East, we should ask ourselves, ‘Why did it take so long?’ The Red Wings are fast, skilled, disciplined, are coached by the best in the business and their matches with the Habs are a pleasure to watch. For most of the game, the Wings controlled the puck and gave the Habs very little room in which to operate.

31 is elite. Both starting goaltenders deservedly received stars tonight. While Detroit’s Jimmy Howard played well, the distance between his third star and Carey Price‘s first star was a giant leap. The Red Wings were very effective at disrupting the Canadiens offensive zone entries and taking away their speed thereby forcing Montreal into a perimeter game. The Red Wings were able to move freely in the Montreal zone generating quality scoring chances. Price kept his team in the game and was especially spectacular in the first period.

Chucky is thriving. Remember all the fretting about Alex Galchenyuk not starting the season at centre? Galchenyuk has always been skilled but this season he is stronger, more confident and has found chemistry with Tomas Plekanec. The Plekanec trio may only get power-play leftovers and less favorable zone starts but they are clearly the No. 1 line for the Canadiens and Galchenyuk is a big reason why. Their combined 19 points could be notably higher if P.A. Parenteau had been able to bury his numerous chances.

Depth perspective. Jiri Sekac will find his way back into the lineup but there’s a logjam on the fourth line.  Dale Weise, bumped up to the third line, led all players with six hits. Travis Moen had 2:34 of perfect penalty-killing duty. And Manny Malhotra was 78 per cent in the faceoff circle. It presents a tough situation for press box resident, Michael Bournival, who was unimpressive in training camp.

No-hitter. The quick, light-hitting Detroit Red Wings would appear to be a tailor-made opponent for Tom Gilbert. The defenseman did not disappoint playing his best game of the season and being rewarded by the Canadiens coaching staff with time-on-ice of 25:27, the most of any player.

It’s 2014-15. With the Canadiens moving to a record of 6-1-0, the media has been tripping over themselves to tell you that it’s the best start since the 1977-’78 season.  They were the team led by Lafleur, Dryden and Robinson who ended the regular season with 129 points enroute to the Canadiens 21st Cup.  It’s not to say that the current version of the team is winning via smoke and mirrors but the Habs have trailed in every game this season. Clearly this is an exciting, never-quit team but there is still lots of work to do.

Plus / Minus

▲   Carey Price, Alex Galchenyuk, Alexei Emelin, Andrei Markov, Dale Weise, Tom Gilbert

▼   P.A. Parenteau, Rene Bourque, Max Pacioretty, Brandon Prust

1.  Carey Price  MTL 
2.  Alex Galchenyuk  MTL
3.  Jimmy Howard DET

Coach Michel Therrien

• “We knew we were playing a team that didn’t give very much, but we got 36 shots and we got our chances. Finally, with our hard work, we got some goals. I know that we’re heading in the right direction.”
• “We’ve got a group of guys that always wants to get better. They’ve got exemplary work ethic. It’s been there since training camp. It’s a group that wants to improve and wants to work. They’re not scared of any challenge. They deserve their success because of their motivation to perform.”

Alex Galchenyuk

• “We have good leaders on this team. We’re a great character team. We always believe in ourselves. It was a pretty chippy game. It was real tight and we couldn’t really get all of the chances we wanted. We started playing our game in the third period. We were going to the net more. That’s what we have to do to be successful, and that’s what we hope to continue doing in future games.”

P.K. Subban

• “We always think we’ve got a chance. I mean, that’s our leadership in this room. We always know we have an opportunity to win a hockey game, and if you look at the past couple of years, in terms of how we’ve handled ourselves when faced with adversity, being down by goals, then scoring timely goals, teams coming back on us and us still holding on to win hockey games, I think it says a lot about our team and the character in this room.”

Carey Price

• “We’re just relentless. I think that pretty much sums it up. We don’t feel like we’re out of any hockey game so we just keep working and keep coming at you, and we feel like if we keep doing that it will pay off.”

Red Wings defenceman Niklas Kronwall

• “I thought in the third that we backed off a little too much. We didn’t really go after them the way that we would like to, but in saying that (Jimmy Howard) was playing strong in front of our net and it felt like we were in good shape.”

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock

• “In the end we lost too many faceoffs going down the stretch. That affected the outcome of the game.”