MONTREAL — The Red Wings have been the perfect tonic for the Montreal Canadiens this season.
The Canadiens only have three wins — they're 3-8-0 — but two of them have come against the Wings, including Tuesday's 3-0 victory.
The Wings were without forwards Dylan Larkin (personal reasons) and Tyler Bertuzzi (unvaccinated), and they dearly missed the offense the two could have provided. Detroit is now 0-3 without Bertuzzi in the lineup in Canada.
But it was more allowing Montreal to gather momentum right off the first shift in the game. The Canadiens scored 2 minutes, 6 seconds into the game on Nick Suzuki's goal, and the Wings were playing from behind early.
"In this building, they can be 8-0 or 0-8, it doesn't matter, in this building, momentum matters," coach Jeff Blashill said Monday about playing the Canadiens at Bell Centre. "You better do a good job of not giving up easy chances because every time you give a chance, momentum builds in this building.
"You better make sure that when you do give up a chance, it's not a second, third and a fourth right away. You have to find ways to quell that momentum. The best way to do that is to play in their end as much as possible and make them defend."
Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 35 shots and kept the Wings close with timely saves throughout the game. Montreal's Jake Allen made 22 saves for his shutout.
But the Wings (4-4-2) couldn't supply enough offense. Of particular frustration was having two consecutive power plays midway in the second period — including 26 seconds of a two-man advantage — and coming away with no goals, even no shots on goal.
Suzuki gave Montreal a 1-0 lead converting on a 2-on-1 rush from the blue line in, flipping a shot over Nedeljkovic's shoulder for Suzuki's first goal this season.
Josh Anderson extended the lead to 2-0 with his third goal, a rush down wing.
The Wings squandered the power-play opportunities in the second period, while arguably getting their best chance to get back in the game.
In the third period, the Wings struggled to put anything of substance going offensively, with Montreal content to sit back and defend.
Montreal's Brendan Gallagher scored into an empty net to end the scoring.
Nedeljkovic was sharp throughout, while playing aggressively around the net.
Montreal has defeated the Wings two games this season, after the Wings swept the four-game season series in 2019-20 — and Montreal had swept the four games the season before (2018-19).
"They have a good team, they just didn't start, probably, as they expected," said Filip Zadina after Monday's practice. "Moving forward, they'll be getting better and stronger. They'll play like they played last year (and) be a good team.
"For us, we just got to compete more than they are competing. Just shoot the puck more and not make major mistakes in the defensive zone."
With no Larkin, Blashill inserted Michael Rasmussen onto the first line. But the Rasmussen, Lucas Raymond and Robby Fabbri line wasn't able to get on the scoresheet, neither Rasmussen or Fabbri had a shot on net (Raymond had four) as the Wings looked for offense.
Still, Rasmussen deserved the No. 1 center spot, said Blashill after the morning skate. He said it balanced the Wings' lines and Rasmussen's play this season.
"Ras has been tasked with lots,” Blashill said. “He’s out there a lot of times against other team’s good players and he’s done a good job. He’s a big body, his skating has improved dramatically from when he first turned pro, he’s played hard, he’s doing lots of good things.
"He’s a guy whose impact isn’t going to be felt just on his offense, it’s going to be felt in his overall game and it’s continuing to grow."
