"It's Here Now": Red Wings-Canadiens Game Day Notebook

Everything you need to know before the Red Wings play the last and most important game of their regular season

Last night, the Red Wings played and won the most important game of their tenancy at Little Caesars Arena, coming from 4-1 down to earn a season-saving 5-4 overtime victory over the visiting Canadiens with Lucas Raymond paving the way to a pivotal two points with an equalizer with 1:17 to play then the OT winner.

Detroit's reward for that performance?  The chance to do it all over again tonight, this time with the added challenge of traveling to Montreal for the final game of the regular season.  As was the case last night, the Red Wings need at least a point to avoid elimination from the postseason and a full two points still not enough to assure them a playoff berth (more on clinching scenarios below).

In his post-game comments to the media, coach Derek Lalonde stressed the importance of setting aside the emotion of last night and moving on to tonight's game, which presents an opportunity Detroit has worked all season toward.

"I know they're excited, but this is a business trip from this moment on," he said.  "I know the emotions are high.  We didn't get the help we had hoped for around the league.  We gotta channel it.  We're gonna get on the plane at the time we're supposed to, get your rehab, your rest.  It wasn't a lot of rah rah.  It was turn the page.  Again, here we are.  Going into the season, no one had us in the playoffs.  Most people had us picked seventh in the division.  If you would've told us, you have one game, Game 82 on the road, to improve 11 points over your previous season, to have a chance to make the playoffs, every single one of us would have signed up for it.  It's here now.  It's gonna be a challenge for us. They're a really good team.  They're very aggressive offensively.  They take a lot of pride in their home ice.  It's their fan appreciation night.  We need to turn the page and give ourselves an opportunity 

J.T. Compher, who scored twice in last night's victory with both goals stemming the tide of building Canadien momentum, offered a similar message.  "I don't think there's a challenge in the mindset, and we know what we need to do," he said. "All tonight did was give us the opportunity to finish the job tomorrow. We'll control what we can control, which is our game."

Last year, Detroit's season met an ignominious end over a two-night, two-game with the Ottawa Senators in February.  Tonight, the Red Wings have the chance to exorcise that memory with a different outcome in an even higher stakes back-to-back with a Canadien foe.

The Red Wings' simplest path to the postseason involves a regulation win tonight and then the Washington Capitals picking up no more than one point in their game this evening against the Flyers (with puck drop at the same time as Detroit-Montreal).

If the Red Wings lose in overtime tonight to the Canadiens, they can still get in, but they can't clinch until tomorrow night.  In that scenario, Detroit would need Washington to lose in regulation tonight against Philadelphia AND have the Penguins pick up no more than one point tomorrow against the Islanders.

If the Red Wings lose in regulation tonight, they will be eliminated from postseason contention on the spot.

There were two major lineup-related questions entering the Red Wings' regular season-ending back-to-back with Montreal: Andrew Copp's health and Lalonde's deployment of his goaltenders.

Copp entered last night's game as a game-time decision, having broken his cheekbone less than a week prior in last Tuesday's 2-1 loss to Washington.  He participated in morning skate, then took warm-up, and determined he was fit enough to play, with a full-cage face shield replacing his customary half-shield visor on his helmet.

For entirely understandable reasons, some of Copp's puck touches (especially early on) did not look entirely comfortable, but he finished the night seeming to find a bit more rhythm in his new equipment, eventually playing 13:23.  Because he was able to play last night, there should be no changes to Detroit's skater group for tonight.

The Red Wings will rotate from Alex Lyon (who made 17 saves on 21 shots last night) to James Reimer.  Neither of Detroit's two goaltenders have been at the peak of their games down the stretch, but Lyon did enough to get two points last night, and now it will be Reimer's turn to replicate that feat tonight in Montreal.

For the season, Reimer is 10-8-2 with a 3.07 goals against average and a .905 save percentage.  He is 4-1-0 in his last five starts, though he has given up at least three goals in four of those efforts.

Alex DeBrincat entered the 2023-24 season as the Red Wings marquee addition, a hometown kid joining the team he grew up cheering for in hopes of restoring that squad to the heights it enjoyed in his own childhood.

The mid-season addition of his old Blackhawks buddy Patrick Kane took some of the pressure off DeBrincat to lead his new team offensively, but still, DeBrincat's season was—fairly or not—always going to be judged on a single bottom line: his goal total.

DeBrincat has generally fit in well with Derek Lalonde's Detroit team.  Despite insinuations he could do nothing but score from his skeptics upon his arrival, DeBrincat has shown his utility on breakouts and on the forecheck during his first season back home.  But, once again, DeBrincat was brought to Detroit to score, and that's what he'll be judged on.

After scoring last night in the third period, DeBrincat now has 27 goals for the season in 81 games, matching his 82-game total a year ago in Ottawa.  That's a respectable if unspectacular total, but it's complicated by the deluge-or-drought nature of his production.  He began the season in torrid form, scoring nine times in his first seven games as a Red Wing, but last night's was just his fourth goal since the start of March.

It's a dynamic liable to make DeBrincat a target for offseason criticism, except now the Farmington Hills-born winger appears to be entering another boom cycle at exactly the right time. On Saturday night, he scored twice in Detroit's win over the Maple Leafs in Toronto, before adding a pivotal goal in last night's third period that cut the Canadiens lead to 4-3, providing the Red Wings and LCA with life as the game entered its closing stages.

There will be plenty of time over the summer to re-evaluate the trade that brought DeBrincat to Detroit, but the simple fact is that finishing his first year under 30 goals would be a disappointment, not a devastating one, nor one that makes the trade a failure, but a disappointment nonetheless.

However, if DeBrincat can extend his current form into another goal or two tonight in Montreal and help propel his team over the playoff cut line, there won't be a Red Wings fan in the state of Michigan at all worried about a difficult second half.

It wouldn't be hard to understand why the Canadiens might not have much emotional or physical energy left to invest in this season-ending back-to-back with Detroit.

Montreal was eliminated from playoff contention on April 4th, thanks to a 7-4 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Even if elimination didn't come until this month, the Habs hadn't had much to play for the entire second half, having spent most of their season in the Atlantic Division's cellar.

However, Martin St. Louis' team gave anything but an uninspired performance Monday night, and, as Lalonde noted, Montreal will look to improve on that effort tonight on home ice.

Among the markers of the Canadiens' intensity despite a lack of playoff stakes wads their commitment to shot blocking.  "Their will was unbelievable," pointed out Lalonde.  "They had 20+ blocks—the league average is around 16—they had that covered, they were at 20+ going into the third, let alone what they did in the third.  So we had a very game opponent tonight, and I give our guys credit for hanging in there."

Montreal would finish the night having blocked 33 would-be Red Wing shots on net.  Last night made undeniably clear that the Habs won't be content to provide Detroit an easy path to the postseason just because they have no path of their own.  

Defensive Lapses Make for a Tough Detroit Comeback against Canadiens

Raymond's Poise Powers Red Wings to 5-4 OT Comeback Win, Keeps Playoff Hopes Alive

Reunited First Line Providing Valuable Offense for Red Wings

"That's All You Want. You Want Meaning": Red Wings Poised for Two-Game Playoff Push