Red Wings Let Prosperity Slip Away Again

For the Detroit Red Wings, the task was a simple one.

Beat the Montreal Canadiens, for much of this season the worst team in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. Then, a wealth of holiday hope could be cascading down upon them, much like the snow that fell across Detroit on Friday.

Win and the Red Wings would be a .500 team on the season. They’d be the owners of winning record on home ice at Little Caesars Arena. Life would be good. There’d be festive cheer, presents galore under the tree. They’d be in position to be greeting the season with hope and goodwill.

So what happened? Well, if you’ve been following this team’s storyline at all this season, you already know what happened.

In the immortal words of Ebenezer Scrooge, it was bah humbug all over again. Except the only ghosts haunting the Red Wings are the ghosts of their own past failures.

Friday, Detroit would squander a third-period lead and lose 4-3 to Montreal.

PATRIK SUPÉRIORITÉ LAINE

PATTY POWER PLAY #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/eTKwHX1U8i

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 21, 2024

Entering the third period deadlocked at 2-2, the Red Wings were grabbing a scoreboard advantage just 1:40 into the final frame of regulation from an unlikely source. Tyler Motte would score his second goal of the season.

“Great opportunity,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “Didn’t feel like we had our best, but it was still there for the taking.”

And yet again, they didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. When all was said and done, they had no one to blame for that but themselves.

Red Wings Guilty Of Mismanagement

Puck management, an oft-discussed trait with this team, was again a key topic regarding this latest failure. After they took the lead in the third period, the Wings didn’t put the clamps down on Montreal. In fact, they held the door open for the Canadiens comeback.

On the tying goal, the first of the campaign for Canadiens tough guy Arber Xhekaj, Detroit forward Patrick Kane felt it more important to get a little selfish payback on Montreal’s Jake Evans as the Canadiens were breaking the puck out and heading toward the Detroit end of the ice.

Arber Xhekaj ties things up with his first goal of the season. 🚨 pic.twitter.com/ENPsRfzDfe

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 21, 2024

While Kane lay on the ice punching Evans in the head 200 feet from his own team’s net, the Canadiens were en route to tying the game. If you watch the replay of the goal, you can see Kane scampering back into the Detroit as Montreal players are already celebrating Xhekaj’s tally.

The winning goal came on a Montreal power play. Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider put his stick out to try and block a Patrik Laine one timer. Instead, Laine’s shot splintered Seider’s stick in half. The resulting change of direction enabled the puck to elude Detroit goalie Cam Talbot.

“We get the lead and then we just get a little casual and we take a penalty,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “We allowed kind of another fluky play where Kaner and the guy (Evans) go down in the corner and then the puck gets out to the defenseman all alone and he’s walking down.”

Bouncing Along In Mediocrity

And so onward go the Red Wings, following the bounces that an up-and-down season continues to supply. They now sit 13-15-4 on the season and 7-8-2 at home. Detroit is six points out of the playoffs and four points out of the conference basement.

“We got to be better with the puck,” Lalonde said. “Just the margin of error is not there. We can’t have lapses in our game. We have to be good on special teams and obviously tonight we were not.”