The Montreal Canadiens began to turn their season around with consecutive victories over Detroit last month. They’ll look to keep their hot streak going when they visit Detroit on Thursday night.
Montreal has a 13-3-1 record over its last 17 games with the wins over the Red Wings coming early in the streak. The Canadiens won at Detroit 4-3 on Dec. 20, then took the rematch the following night, 5-1.
The game on Thursday will be the third of four meetings between the Original Six opponents. Montreal has won its last two games following a 7-3 to Toronto. The Canadiens bounced back with a 5-4 overtime victory against the New York Islanders, then rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat Tampa Bay, 3-2, on Tuesday.
“We don’t want to be caught in those (deficit) situations, especially coming down the stretch,” center Alex Newhook said. “We don’t want to be chasing the game all the time. If there’s anything we can take away from this success we’ve found, it’s getting out to better starts is important for us.”
Jake Evans finished off the rally with a tiebreaking goal with 2:15 remaining.
“I think we just have so much belief in how we play and no lead is too far off for us to chase off,” Evans said. “We were down two and weren’t playing our best, and we knew if we started playing our hockey, it’s going to be easy to get back in it.”
Lane Hutson could make some history on Thursday. He extended his assist and point streaks to nine games on Tuesday. That tied the NHL record for the longest assist streak by a rookie defenseman, set by Shayne Gostisbehere of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2015-16.
The Red Wings return home after an unproductive road trip. They have lost four of their past five games and went 1-2-1 on the journey, which pushed them back to the .500 mark. Detroit has the third-fewest points in the Eastern Conference.
Detroit completed the road swing with a 2-1 overtime loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday.
“We’ve been in this position (before), we were here last year,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “You have to capitalize on your opportunities. A night like (Tuesday), we didn’t have our legs and it was a sloppy game but we found a way to get a point. It would have been nice to get two and especially with the way things have been going.”
The Red Wings reeled off seven straight victories under new coach Todd McLellan prior to the five-game dropoff, which began with a home loss to one of the league’s worst teams, San Jose.
After a 5-2 victory over defending champion Florida, the Red Wings have scored a single goal in each of their last three games.
“We limited them to two goals, one of them in overtime,” forward Lucas Raymond said. “The defensive structure was real good most of the game. If we get a couple of goals, it’s a completely different game.”
Now, the Red Wings need a prolonged hot streak to get back in the playoff picture.
“For sure not a successful trip in our point of view,” Raymond said. “We know the way we’re supposed to play and we have to get back to that.”
–Field Level Media
