Trending: Canadiens dismantle listless Red Wings, 8-1

DETROIT-- It was a night to forget for the Detroit Red Wings and their fans.
One day after the trade deadline, the Montreal Canadiens came into Little Caesars Arena and despite playing in the second of back-to-back games, defeated the Wings, 8-1.

It is the second time this season the Canadiens have beat up on the Red Wings, including a 7-3 decision in Montreal on Oct. 15.
In that early-season game, the Wings were without four of their top six defensemen.
On this night, only Trevor Daley (back) was missing from the veteran corps.
The Red Wings have lost six straight (0-4-2) and a season-long five straight at home.
Anthony Mantha scored the lone goal for Detroit.
Andrew Shaw (three), Brendan Gallagher, Max Domi (two), Joel Armia and former Wings forward Tomas Tatar scored for the Canadiens.
Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard, starting for the first time since Feb. 20, made 16 saves on 22 shots through two periods before Jonathan Bernier came in to start the third. Bernier had 10 stops on 12 shots.
Montreal netminder Carey Price, starting for the second straight night, had 27 saves, improving to 14-4-1 lifetime against Detroit.
Up next for the Red Wings is a two-game trip to Arizona and Colorado.
The Canadiens head to New York to face the Rangers on Friday.
1. Niklas Kronwall/Frans Nielsen/Dylan Larkin: In one of their most forgettable performances of the season, three of the four Red Wings alternate captains addressed the media after the game and they were at a loss for words. The Canadiens scored eight goals without a power play and the Wings were a combined minus-35 for the game. As each player spoke, they exhibited a range of emotions - Kronwall was utterly disgusted, Nielsen was dumbfounded and Larkin was flat-out angry. Perhaps the most telltale image to sum up the Wings' night is when Larkin got into a spat with Habs defenseman Brett Kulak at 14:59 of the third with the Wings down, 7-1. Kulak wanted a piece of Larkin and the native Detroiter obliged. Larkin received a roughing minor and a 10-minute misconduct, while Kulak was issued a double minor for roughing along with a 10-minute misconduct. Once Larkin reached the Wings bench, he threw his helmet down to the ground with so much force the red headgear bounced towards the heavens.
Quotable: "The work ethic, the compete, the emotions. No heart whatsoever. No pride out there. It was from the drop of the puck. We weren't even close. That was absolutely embarrassing. You talk about you want to be able to look yourself in the mirror after a game. That was absolutely embarrassing. Our fans deserve a hell of a lot more than that. I wish I had an answer for you. I wish I had a lot of answers tonight, to be honest with you. We had nothing. It's as simple as that. But let's not walk out of here feeling sorry for ourselves. We should be embarrassed and be ready to come to work on Thursday." -- Kronwall
Quotable II: "It was straight out embarrassing tonight. Whatever position you're in in the standings, you still gotta go out there and compete. That's the number one thing. If you don't compete, you don't have a chance. You're gonna have good and bad nights. It's gonna happen. But the compete level, it's gotta be there every night. That's the only way you're gonna have any chance when it's not working for you." -- Nielsen
Quotable III: "There's no explanation. It's embarrassing. No explanation at all. We've been saying it for too long, too many times coming in here in front of you guys, in front of our fans, who spend time and pay money to come watch us play. We got to have pride. We got to believe in each other, believe in what we're doing. That was doing nothing. That was embarrassing for our fans and they deserve better, the city of Detroit deserves better. Just the effort was not there. We've had this question asked too many times of why we were outcompeted, why we were out-skated. We're a fast team when we're skating well and it's going well for us. But too many times coming back in here having that question asked." -- Larkin

2. Second Period Woes: Some teams have trouble starting on time, some teams have trouble finishing games in the third but the bulk of the Wings' problems come in the second period. Coming into Tuesday's game, the Wings had a minus-26 goal differential, 81-55, in the second period. Then the Canadiens, without even the benefit of a power-play goal, outscored the Wings 5-1 in the second period, meaning the Wings' second-period goal differential is now minus-30. In the first period, the Wings have a minus-three goal differential, 50-47. In the third period, the Wings have a minus-nine goal differential, 75-66. Even cutting that second-period differential in half could make a huge difference the rest of the way.
   Quotable: "We went through some of the goals against after the second period. Your recourse as a coach is generally talking, teaching, yelling, showing video, ice time. I wasn't taking away ice time. That's giving them an out. Keep playing. You started this thing so keep going." -- Wings coach Jeff Blashill
   Quotable II: "We've had bits and pieces of games where we've played decent. But let's be honest here, we haven't been able to put together a 60-minute effort for quite some time now. There's no hiding that. You can't hide from the fact that we haven't been playing very well. Sure, bits and pieces but that's not good enough. Tonight we didn't play any of the 60 minutes and we got what we deserved." -- Kronwall
   Quotable III: "We just made it hard on ourselves. We caused a lot of those goals they scored. And when that happens, I think you simplify. Try to get it out, get it deep, try and force some turnovers through some good forechecks. Just a really simple game but we just kept losing guys in the offensive zone and giving them odd-man rushes. Just bad plays all over." -- Nielsen
   3. Anthony Mantha/Filip Hronek: Mantha went to the left side of the net at 18:16 of the second period and put the rebound in easily. Mike Green and Filip Hronek picked up the assists. It was Mantha's 16th goal of the season. Mantha is third on the team in goals behind Dylan Larkin's 26 and Andreas Athanasiou's 22. In 13 career games against his hometown team, Mantha has five goals and three assists. Mantha extended his point streak to four games, with two goals and five assists in that span. Mantha has four goals and seven assists in his last eight games. Hronek now has points in eight of his last 11 games, recording one goal and nine assists. Mantha finished with 21 shifts for 21:21, had a team-high six shots, three giveaways, one takeaway, was 1-for-1 in face-offs and was minus-1. Hronek finished with 24 shifts for 22:30, had one shot, one hit, three giveaways and was minus-2.
   Quotable: "We can't do this every night. The fans are coming to this building, they want to see the young guys play and we're playing but we're not really playing. We have to play harder. We have a good chunk of time left and we can't have this effort every night. We have to buy in and at least work hard, at least battle, especially at home, we don't have a whole lot of home games left. We need a better effort. It's not going to be easy, we're playing teams that are fighting for their lives and we have to, too. Every day should be a tryout for us." -- Larkin