HockeyCanadiens face daunting task in Detroit

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Watch Now: Jim Hughson previews Canadiens at Red Wings (CBC, 7 p.m. ET)

The script

The Joe Louis Arena is the antithesis of the Bell Centre.

Detroit's home rink is old and tired. Its working areas are cramped like the concourses. There's nothing bright and shiny about the Joe or the area of town it inhabits. The scoreboard won't take your attention from the ice and the game presentation is a lot like the team: business-like and efficient without being glitzy.

The Joe Louis isn't a lot of things, but it is the most intimidating building in the NHL. Not in an old Spectrum sort of way, but in a 'better have your game on or you'll get blitzed' sort of way.

The Detroit Red Wings have been so good for so long and so proficient at home that teams often feel like they're down 2-0 and outshot 20-5 before the game even starts and that's often the way it is after the first period.

Since they last missed the playoffs in 1990, the Red Wings are a gaudy 337 wins over .500 at home, and have gone 65-30 in home playoff games since winning the Stanley Cup in 1997. In a dozen seasons over the last 20, the Red Wings have lost fewer than 10 games at home, and twice they've lost fewer than five.

So into the Joe come the Montreal Canadiens (CBC, 7 p.m. ET) looking a bit like an Eastern version of the Red Wings this season.

The Habs aren't very big and don't employ a designated fighter. Tomas Plekanec, their leading scorer, ranks 34th in the league and the second-leading scorer on the team is 70th.

The Canadiens will chip and chase more than Detroit, but they work like crazy, have a relentless backcheck and play a four-line game that wears teams down.

They're also dropping by to test their game at a time when the Red Wings have a large burr under their saddle. Detroit has lost two in a row at home this week and hasn't lost three in a row - without points - at the Joe in a couple of years.

As it turns out, the test in this one is for both.

In the spotlight

If you played a drinking game and had to chug every time Nicklas Lidstrom got hit, you'd be thirsty with a glass of warm, stale beer.

The best defenceman in the league still has few blemishes on his game at 40 and, like the head coach who can't find a game for his backup goalie, Mike Babcock keeps promising to cut Lidstrom's minutes but can't help himself when there's a game to win. Lidstrom is still playing more (24 minutes) than anyone else on the team. 

Babcock has managed to keep Lidstrom under 30 minutes this season, but two losses is like a panic button, so that could change in a hurry. And if Lidstrom plays 30 minutes, watch how often he gets hit - or doesn't - and you'll likely stay thirsty, my friends.

On the Hotstove

Montreal's P.K. Subban could learn a lot from Lidstrom's less-is-more style of play.

If Subban gets back in after being scratched for three straight games, he'll have to be careful not to force passes that aren't available or try to do too much on his own. 

The Red Wings are masters at creating turnovers and putting them in the back of the net, and they close off options that invite the inexperienced player to take chances. One of the few things worse for a young player than sitting in the press box is the lonely skate back to the bench at the Joe when the Red Wings are raising their arms.

Again.

Outtakes

Babcock has been effusive in his praise of the new Todd Bertuzzi. The winger, who has always been gifted offensively, used to be a turnover machine, but now he has the best plus-minus on the Red Wings at plus-10.

But alas, Bert has gone minus-5 in the last two losses at home and his line with Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen was a combined minus-10 in the losses, prompting Babcock to break it up midway through a 3-2 loss to Nashville.

The Canadiens have had a great first quarter while getting very little offence from Scott Gomez (four goals, nine points in 28 games). An observer quipped the other day that head coach Jacques Martin would probably have Gomez sitting beside Subban in the press box if he wasn't a highly-paid veteran.

Well, now it looks like Gomez might have to take a seat because of injury (lower body, game-day decision) and we'll see how the Habs do without him and his statistically unproductive 18 minutes a game.

Stat pack

This Red Wings record at the Joe since the start of the 1990-91 season is 511-174-57-35. This, along with four Stanley Cups, and still some refuse to acknowledge Detroit's dynasty.

(Photo of Carey Price, Kris Draper and P.K. Subban by Jerry S. Mendoza/Associated Press)

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