DETROIT _ Dylan Larkin threw off his helmet as he left the game, his night over with five minutes to go after getting into a shoving match.
It was the most fire the Detroit Red Wings showed Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena, otherwise looking inept as they were routed yet again by the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs scored at will in the second period _ similar to how San Jose took over Sunday _ and there wasn't a hint of a rally from the Wings.
The disaster finally ended at 8-1, adding to the embarrassing history the Wings have suffered at the hands of the Habs, who won 7-3 back in October and routed them 10-1 last season.
It was the Wings' first game since shipping second-leading scorer Gustav Nyquist to San Jose before Monday's trade deadline. They fell behind 5-0 before Anthony Mantha made a dent. Jimmy Howard was pulled for a third straight start, relieved to start the third period by Jonathan Bernier. Mike Green had a particularly poor outing, looking out of position, but the Wings looked bad to a man.
Six minutes into the game Tomas Tatar got the puck on his stick, outmuscled Filip Hronek and drove Detroit's net to score his 22nd goal of the season. It was Tatar's 22nd goal of the season. It was almost a year to the date the Wings flipped Tatar at the trade deadline, sending him to Vegas for a 2018 first-round pick, 2019 second-round pick and 2021 third-round pick. The 2018 first-rounder was used on Joe Veleno, who on Monday was named player of the week in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on the strength of two goals and five assists in three games. Veleno has 97 points in 51 games with Drummondville.
The Wings began the second period with 1:42 left on a power play. Rookie Michael Rasmussen had a couple chances in front of Montreal's net but Carey Price stopped both. The Wings fell further behind shorty after their power play ended, when Andrew Shaw smacked a bouncy puck past Jimmy Howard, and dropped into a 3-0 hole on a Brendan Gallagher goal at 11:19. Max Domi upped it to 4-0 at 13:48 as the Canadiens continued their barrage. Joel Armin and Shaw scored before the second period ended. Shaw completed his hat trick with 2:33 to go in regulation. Domi also had two goals.
FIlip Zadina played 10:38 in his debut Sunday against San Jose. He'd played 8:24 through two periods Tuesday, on a line with Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Bertuzzi and noggin 52 seconds of power play time. Athanasiou set up Zadina deep in Montreal's zone during the second period, but Zadina wound up shooting wide.
