A night of firsts for trio in Red Wings’ victory
Elmer Soderblom scored a thirdperiod goal in his NHL debut, Ville Husso made 29 saves in his first game with Detroit, and Derek Lalonde’s was a winner in his first game as a head coach as the Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 on Friday night in their season opener.
Soderblom, a 2019 sixth-round draft pick, played in the Swedish Hockey League the past two seasons. He’s the tallest player in franchise history at 6-foot-8.
“I wanted to get a good first shift, get things going, so I felt I did that,” Soderblom said. “And I just built off of that.”
Husso, acquired from St. Louis in a trade during the offseason, recorded his fourth shutout.
“I feel like we were on top of them all the time,” Husso said. “It was one of those games, as a goalie, where you enjoy the play there. You trust the team and guys are doing a great job blocking shots and all of that. So it was a good game.”
Michael Rasmussen had an empty-net goal and two assists. Olli Maatta also had an empty-netter.
Lalonde, Tampa Bay’s former top assistant, replaced Jeff Blashill after the Red Wings failed to make the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season.
“The important thing is not only getting the first win but getting it the right way,” Lalonde said. “We played a complete game tonight. You worry a little about the psyche of playing well and not getting rewarded with the outcome. Tonight, it all came through for us.”
Jake Allen made 37 saves for Montreal. The Canadiens opened at home Wednesday night with a 4-3 victory over Toronto. They played four rookie defensemen for the second straight game and it caught up to them.
“It’s their home opener and they obviously had a lot of energy,” Allen said. “They controlled the zone pretty well in the first period, but we got out of it at 0-0. That’s the important thing - we kept ourselves in the game. We were back on our heels a little bit, no question, but you have to be able to weather those storms.”
The Red Wings peppered the net in the opening period, outshooting the Canadiens 25-10, and held a 3418 advantage after two periods but neither side could break through.
“I think they brought a lot of pressure,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “They chipped in a lot of pucks, dumped in a lot of pucks and finished their checks. I think we will learn a little bit from tonight and be better for it.”
Detroit finally ended the scoring drought when Rasmussen came from behind the net and tried to jam the puck past Allen, who made a pad save. Soderblom converted the rebound at 2:33 of the period.
“He handled tonight way better than I ever expected,” Lalonde said. “As you saw, I trust him in every situation.”
Husso made a sparkling glove save against Josh Anderson on Montreal power play midway through the period.
“If we’re not playing chaotic in front of him, he can look like that,” Lalonde said about Husso. “He got the big save on the power play, which was huge, but for the most part we made it comfortable for him. That’s our goal going forward.”
Mark Scheifele scored twice and Winnipeg beat New York to win its season opener.
Sam Gagner also scored, Kyle Connor added an empty-netter, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 40 shots for the Jets.
Dryden Hunt had a goal for and backup goalie Jaroslav Halak finished with 30 saves in his Rangers debut. New York was playing its third game of the season, and the second half of a back-to-back after a 7-3 win at Minnesota on Thursday.
Steven Stamkos scored twice, and Corey Perry and Ross Colton each had a goal and an assist, as Tampa Bay got its first win of the season.
Cal Foote also scored for the Lightning, and Vladislav Namestnikov, Alex Killorn and Mikhail Sergachev each added two assists. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 26 shots.
“It was a well-rounded game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It was something we needed, and now we’re just going to have to carry it into tomorrow.”
Johnny Gaudreau recorded his first goal since signing with the Blue Jackets in the offseason, and Gus Nyquist also scored for Columbus. Daniil Tarasov remained winless in seven NHL appearances, finishing with 34 saves.
The Blue Jackets were playing their first game without star forward Patrik Laine, who is expected to miss 3-4 weeks with a shoulder injury.
“We were sloppy,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “We weren’t good enough tonight .... We had some bad bounces but that’s not why we lost tonight. We lost because they were the better team.”