Detroit City Wire

The Detroit Red Wings opened their NHL season with a 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday. Head coach Todd McLellan and his players cited mental mistakes and a lack of execution as key reasons for the defeat.

“You can be as tough as you want mentally, but if you’re doing very disruptive things to your own game, you’re going to break down real quick,” McLellan said. “We saw that time and time again in the game…It was clearly one team that managed it well and took advantage of the chances they had, and another team that created multiple opportunities for the opposition.”

Despite outshooting Montreal 31-17, Detroit struggled to create offense in the attacking zone. Team captain Dylan Larkin commented, “Everything they got, I feel like we let them get behind us. We talked about that before the game. It seemed like we really couldn’t do the simple things – chipping pucks in and getting to our game on the forecheck. We shot ourselves in the foot so many times that we didn’t get to our game and create offense.”

Larkin scored Detroit’s only goal early in the first period with assists from Patrick Kane and Moritz Seider. Seider said, “I thought we came out with a great start. Really good intensity, and then the game kind of slipped away from us.”

Montreal responded with three goals in the first period from Zack Bolduc, Oliver Kapanen, and Mike Matheson. Bolduc added another goal in the second period, followed by Juraj Slafkovsky’s power-play tally, bringing Montreal’s lead to 5-1.

“We just need to count guys,” Seider said. “We can’t linger forward when we have people flying behind us, especially the whole D-core. I think we need to do a better job.”

Goaltender John Gibson started for Detroit but was replaced by Cam Talbot late in the second period after allowing five goals. Gibson made eight saves while Talbot recorded four saves in relief.

“Anytime you give up a goal late, at the end of periods, it’s a killer,” Larkin said. “We came out and then they got the fourth. It’s a similar story; they get behind us. We didn’t do much good. We left Gibby out to dry. It was tough.”

Three Red Wings prospects—Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, Emmitt Finnie, and Axel Sandin-Pellikka—made their NHL debuts during this game. This marks the first time since 2018-19 that three skaters have played their first NHL contest for Detroit on Opening Night.

“They’re special players,” Larkin said about his rookie teammates. “No doubt about it. They had glimpses. I would be lying if you looked at anyone on the ice for us tonight that really stood out and played well. No one really played well. I’m not hitting the panic button. I believe in this group. I believe that we can correct all the things – the missed assignments, lack of execution – I believe we can clean that up.”

The Red Wings will continue their homestand against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.

McLellan reflected on Gibson’s performance: “This game reminded me very much of Saturday night. On Saturday night, I don’t know if you could chalk it up to the last [preseason] game and nobody wants to get hurt or do anything like that, let’s just get through it, but tonight meant something and we played the same way. Gibby had the same results as well.”

Looking ahead after Thursday’s loss, Larkin said: “It’s our first game. We got a chance to fix all that. A lot of that is on us, and I just thought it was such a special night. The crowd was unbelievable, and we kind of wasted that one. We got 81 more to get back to our game. We got to figure it out fast and I believe it’s in this room.”

Addressing execution issues, Larkin added: “I wish I had an answer. We got out there, and it was chaotic. A lot of the chaos was self-inflicted. It was a strange, strange game. We really just did not help ourselves out there. I do believe it is all fixable.”

Seider concluded: “I think we just have to look at the negatives, analyze and make the most out of it, then come with a lot of intensity in two days.”