The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night, in a game that established which team would emerge with the top spot in the Atlantic Division.
Other than the first line, which has performed well above expectations since Alexandre Texier’s arrival, the Canadiens lineup was outplayed by a significant margin at 5v5, and they once again showed the discipline of an escaped lab monkey that broke into an energy drink warehouse.
Consequently, the Red Wings emerged with an easy 4-0 win.
Let’s dive into the highlights!
Fowler At Work
Rookie Jacob Fowler was tasked with guarding Montreal’s net, and though he was far from perfect, he did a good job attempting to slow down a hungry Red Wings squad.
Fantastic save by Jacob Fowler on Dylan Larkin during the penalty kill. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/36PRhoTbgE
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 11, 2026
Unfortunately, the Red Wings broke the ice with a little help from Lady Luck, as a dump-in careened off the Zamboni door before resulting in an unfortunate goal against the Habs.
Quelle malchance pour le CH 😫 Les Red Wings prennent les devants en 2e période pic.twitter.com/JYETmGPDLJ
— TVA Sports (@TVASports) January 11, 2026
Good Zebra
At the risk of breaking the unspoken hockey code, I’d like to give a little credit to the referees for their work in one particular situation.
Too often, the player who initiates the hold ends up drawing a powerplay, a situation that has become all too common in the NHL. On Saturday night, the referees made the right call, noting that Finnie held Noah Dobson’s stick in a bid to draw a call.
I love this call on Finnie. Too many NHL players cheat in this situation, and get rewarded with a powerplay. pic.twitter.com/1Xj01pa7TN
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 11, 2026
Arber Smash!
The Canadiens did not mount much in the offence category through 40 minutes of play, but Arber Xhekaj did distinguish himself with two devastating hits on J.T. Compher in the very same shift.
Xhekaj has been playing a very steady brand of rough-and-tumble defence in the last few months, which has been quite the boon for the third pairing.
Arber Xhekaj sends Compher to the nether realm twice in one shift. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/mRN56LpGZv
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 11, 2026
Sleepy Session
The Habs were haunted by their eternal curse, a complete lack of discipline that simply cannot be contained. This led to a penalty-box parade, which erased any semblance of momentum for the road team.
If we’re being perfectly honest, there were three or four blatant penalties by the Habs that weren’t called, because Detroit was already in the midst of a dominant game.
On top of their indiscipline, most of Montreal’s shots were of the low-quality variety. To Detroit’s credit, they did a great job keeping the Habs to the outside, and the Canadiens did a terrible job in the accuracy department.
Other than the first line, which has performed well above expectations since Alexandre Texier’s arrival, the Canadiens lineup was outplayed by a significant margin at 5v5.
Regardless, the result was mostly a one-sided game in Detroit’s favour.
Tic-tac-toe, Red Wings up 2-0 with this powerplay goal. pic.twitter.com/E1RdQl2pqf
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 11, 2026
The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Monday, facing the Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET.
All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.
