[thepuck 2018-10-15] Wings 3 @ Habs 7

Danault(8)-Tatar(9)-Gallagher(10)
Domi(5)-Drouin(6)-Lehkonen(7)
Kotkaniemi(2)-Byron(9)-Armia(7)
Plekanec(10)-Hudon(7)-Peca(9)
Mete(6)-Petry(5)
Reilly(5)-Juulsen(5)
Ouellet(7)-Benn(2)
Niemi(8)
Price(-)

Scratches: Shaw (flu), Scherbak (healthy), Alzner (healthy), De La Rose (waived)

Ouellet and Tatar take on their former team. Plekanec plays his thousandth game in the NHL. Current coach Claude Julien was also behind the bench for Plekanec's very first NHL game in 2003.

1st

Juulsen lays the body early showing his development but also misses a bouncing puck with his stick when he should have gotten his body in front of it. He’s leading the league in hits.

Niemi stops Athanasiou on a breakaway and the rebound.

Drouin throws his stick and complains about a little tap from an opposing player’s stick and got a penalty shot. He scores. Later he lies on his back for awhile like a turtle. He skates lazily to the bench from the other side of the Ice.

Plekanec gets the second goal off a Red Wing player’s stick. Later he works hard and gets a breakaway that’s stopped. In between the Wings scored.

A funny bouncing puck goes in for the Habs.

Byron, Plekanec and Tatar looking good in the first.

Ouellet and Benn shaky in the first. Kotkaniemi looks like a boy playing with men.

I really like what I’m seeing from Juulsen despite a few mistakes. He’s a little inconsistent but more consistent than the rest of the D. He’s willing to take a hit to make the play.

For the Wings, Athanasiou and Bertuzzi were especially dangerous.

2nd

Wings come out with a lot more energy to start this period.

Athanasiou a dangerous weapon again this period. Unfortunate for the Wings, he’s usually alone. Nyquist had a good shift.

Danault, Tatar, Gallagher, Peca and Plekanec all especially effective this period.

Hudon scores a goal on a great play by the whole line after Gallagher got one from his line.

Howard gets pulled in favour of Bernier.

Jerk fans in the stands start the Ole song before the game is even half over. Sigh.

Bertuzzi shoves Drouin and gets chased down by some whining. Both get penalties. Detroit much better at 4on4 than Montreal and the Habs are lucky to get out of it without a goal.

Wings get more penalties. Some are bad luck, others poor choices and some just seem like the refs are picking on them.

Drouin pulls out a loose puck after a scramble in front of the net and scores. Gallagher stops holding the goalie down just before Drouin shot. Good goal, apparently.

With a couple minutes left, Montreal starts laying back and dumping. Luckily Detroit screws up all the chances this gives them. This shouldn’t be confused with Julien making the right strategic choice.

3rd

Habs come out soft and slow. Niemi makes some nice saves off Detroit’s scoring opportunities but they keep coming, not because Detroit is playing well but Montreal’s skaters are disappearing from the play.

Petry goes down bleeding from a high stick and Detroit scores. The ref was watching the play but maybe it was too fast. It wasn’t on purpose but definitely Glendenning’s stick. Petry got his revenge by glaring at the ref and throwing his gloves.

Drouin didn’t want to be left out and layed on the ice for awhile. When he got up, Bertuzzi pushed him softly and Ouellet defended Drouin’s honour in a fight that Bertuzzi won. Still good on Ouellet (Drouin took a puck to the knee but he dives so often it’s hard to tell when it’s real).

Larkin draws a hooking penalty that didn’t happen but there was a little holding the ref couldn’t see so it’s a wash.

Detroit gets a wraparound while Juulsen is busy and Reilly just watches the play.

Hronek got frustrated with life in Detroit and tried to instigate Byron into letting him stay in Montreal. Petry came in to defend. Nothing much happened but Hronek got the penalty on it for dropping his gloves and doing nothing. Montreal spends more time passing back than moving forward and accomplish nothing.

Later Armia sets up Byron who converts.

Stars
No one Habs player shone as first star however Gallagher, Peca and Plekanec had very solid games that are starworthy. Athanasiou was absolutely the Wings only star although Bertuzzi and Nyquist had some good shifts.