Red Wings HC Todd McLellan doesn't mince words about Detroit fans raining boos after disappointing season opener loss to Habs

Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan didn’t hold back after Detroit’s rough season opener 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Dylan Larkin scored and goaltender John Gibson allowed five goals for Detroit. Cam Talbot stopped four shots in relief.

Mike Matheson, Alexandre Carrier, Juraj Slafkovsky, Oliver Kapanen, and Zachary Bolduc netted for Montreal. Jakub Dobes has 30 saves in the win.

When asked about the boos from the Detroit crowd, McLellan said the reaction:

"Yeah, that's not unfortunate. We earn the Bronx boos, or whatever you want to call them. We earn those, and it's up to us to fix it.”

“If we just play fundamentally sound hockey, we wouldn't be putting ourselves in that situation. So until we get that down and get it back in its box, if you will, we'll have trouble winning games. So practice tomorrow is important.”

On the team’s overall performance, McLellan said the Red Wings actually started well but quickly lost control due to poor game management.

He noted the team “just played the game” instead of playing to win, which led to multiple defensive breakdowns. By his count, Detroit gave up six or seven odd-man rushes late in the first period, calling it “unacceptable.”

McLellan said those mistakes were the same ones the team had worked on for weeks in training camp and that it’s time for players to execute properly.

Next the Detroit will face against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday at Little Caesars Arena.

Detroit Red Wings 5-1 loss against Canadiens

Dylan Larkin put on the board first 3:50 of the first period on the power play to give Detroit a 1-0 lead.

Next, Zack Bolduc slipped behind the Red Wings’ defense and beat John Gibson at 10:14 to tie the game.

Oliver Kapanen then gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead at 12:43, with a one-timer from Alex Newhook’s cross-slot feed. At the end of the first, Mike Matheson fired home from the slot at 19:53 to extend the lead to 3-1.

In the second period, Alexandre Carrier scored with long wrist shot sailed over Gibson’s shoulder at 5:19 to make it 4-1. Juraj Slafkovsky capped off the scoring on the power play at 17:12, pushing Montreal’s lead to 5-1.