The Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings meet in an Atlantic division matchup in NHL action from Little Caesars Arena on Friday.
The Montreal Canadiens come into this one fresh off of a 4-3 win over Toronto last time out. Cole Caufield had a pair of goals while Nick Suzuki had a pair of assists. Sean Monahan and Josh Anderson each had a goal as well with Anderson and Jordan Harris each boasting a team-high +2 plus/minus rating so far. Jake Allen is 1-0 with a 3.00 GAA and a .906 save percentage so far this season.
The Detroit Red Wings will try to take another step forward after a 32-40-10 record, missing out on the playoffs for the 6th straight year. The core for the Red Wings is pretty much in tact and some key additions were made to strengthen the top nine for Detroit. Dylan Larkin is back after leading the Red Wings with 69 points and 31 goals last year while Tyler Bertuzzi also returns after posting 62 points with 30 goals. Lucas Raymond had 57 points and Moritz Seider had 50 points with a team-high 43 assists. The additions of Andrew Copp, David Perron and Dominik Kubalik give the Red Wings added forward depth, playoff experience and veteran leadership that was sorely missing from this young team. The Red Wings also added a starting caliber goaltender in Ville Husso who saw the bulk of top line goaltending work for St. Louis last year to go alongside incumbent goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic.
Montreal is 23-50 in their last 73 road games and 1-6 in their last 7 games following a win while the over is 5-0-1 in their last 6 games overall. Detroit is 0-4 in their last 4 home games and 43-98 in their last 141 division games while the over is 19-6-1 in their last 26 home games.
I get the case to be made for Montreal after a solid showing against Toronto in their opener, but I think that game was more about Toronto losing it than it was about Montreal winning it. Detroit may start a bit slow considering they haven’t had a chance to shake off the rust yet, but the Red Wings have a history of playing their better hockey at home and I think this is another case of exactly that. Give me the Red Wings.