RECAP: Red Wings fall to Canadiens on Opening Night, 5-1

DETROIT -- There is little room for error in the NHL, and the Detroit Red Wings were unfortunately reminded of that on Opening Night, with head coach Todd McLellan and his players pointing to mental lapses and a lack of execution as decisive factors in Thursday's 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Little Caesars Arena.

“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.”

Although Detroit (0-1-0; 0 points) outshot Montreal (1-1-0; 2 points) 31-17 on the night, captain Dylan Larkin said his team struggled to establish its game in the offensive zone.

“Everything they got, I feel like we let them get behind us,” Larkin said. “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 the Red Wings’ first goal of their Centennial season when he unloaded Patrick Kane’s behind-the-goal-line feed from the right face-off circle on the power play to make it 1-0 just 3:50 into the first period. Mortiz Seider collected the secondary assist.

“I thought we came out with a great start,” Seider said. “Really good intensity, and then the game kind of slipped away from us.”

Just after the midpoint of the first period, Zack Bolduc tied the game 1-1 for Montreal with a wrist shot from the slot at 10:14 and then Oliver Kapanen one-timed a pass from Alex Newhook on a 2-on-1 rush to make it 2-1 at 12:43.

And adding another for the Canadiens in the final minute of the opening frame, Mike Matheson’s wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle extended it to 3-1 at 19:53.

“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.”

Detroit found itself facing a 4-1 deficit at 5:17 of the second period when Bolduc redirected Alexandre Carrier’s shot into the back of the net for his second goal of the night. Near the end of the frame, goalie John Gibson was replaced by netminder Cam Talbot after Juraj Slafkovsky’s power-play tally to make it 5-1 at 17:12.

Neither Original Six club found the back of the net in the third period. Overall, Gibson made eight saves and Talbot recorded four saves in relief for Detroit while netminder Jakub Dobes finished with 30 saves for Montreal.

“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.”

On Thursday, forward prospects Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and Emmitt Finnie as well as defense prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka made their respective NHL debuts with the Red Wings. It marked the first time since 2018-19 that Detroit had three skaters play their first NHL contest on Opening Night.

“They’re special players,” Larkin said about the trio of 20-year-old skaters. “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.”

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will continue their season-opening homestand when the Toronto Maple Leafs visit Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on Gibson’s night

“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.”

Larkin on moving forward after Thursday’s season-opening loss

“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.”

Larkin on the lack of execution

“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 on coming up short on Thursday

“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.”