Canadiens chase Jimmy Howard, pile on Ty Conklin to bury Wings

Montreal— This wasn't the way the Red Wings wanted to head into the All-Star break.

It'll be a little more difficult to enjoy the time off this weekend after Wednesday's ugly 7-2 loss to the Canadiens.

The loss ended the Red Wings seven-game winning streak.

The Red Wings were missing the durable Nicklas Lidstrom (flu) — ending his consecutive games played streak at 213 — but it's hard to pin all the blame on that absence.

Lidstrom took part in the morning skate but felt worse as the game neared.

"But I don't think this had anything to do with Nick," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "We were awful. I don't know what else to tell you. The clock couldn't run fast enough.

"A little humble pie to say the least. We had a tough night as a group. In all zones, we were awful."

Montreal scored four first-period goals to chase goaltender Jimmy Howard — Ty Conklin began the second period — and never let up.

Jiri Hudler scored two third-period goals (he has 15), the long bright spot for the Red Wings.

"We had a tough start and didn't get anything going in any aspect of our game," Red Wings defenseman Brad Stuart said. "It's unacceptable to have an effort like that. In the big picture, we hit the reset coming button coming out of the break. We have to be better."

For the Red Wings, it's fortunate they've been dominant at Joe Louis Arena (20-2-1, 17 consecutive wins) because the road has been much less friendlier.

The defeat Wednesday dropped the Red Wings below .500 on the road (13-14-0) heading into the break.

"That's something we have to work on," Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg said.

David Desharnais scored two goals (one a power play), while Rene Bourque, Alexei Emelin, Tomas Plekanec, Max Pacioretty and Erik Cole added the others for Montreal.

The seven goals allowed tied a season high for the Red Wings — they allowed seven in a 7-1 loss to the Capitals on Oct. 22.

Howard allowed four goals on 12 first-period shots, the final two coming 1 minute 35 seconds apart late in the first period. Both goals pretty much typified the evening for Howard.

Desharnais scored while the teams were playing 4-on-4.

He looked like he fanned on the shot, but the puck slid past Howard for a 3-0 Montreal lead.

Then at 19:33, Plekanec buried a rebound off the end boards to put Montreal ahead 4-0 and sending the sell-out crowd at Bell Centre into a frenzy.

With a four-game trip to western Canada and Phoenix beginning Tuesday, it's a good bet the Red Wings will attempt to forget about this travesty quickly. Babcock sure will.

"I'm not looking to look at this video at all," Babcock said after the game. "I'm going to have a drink, actually, is what I'm going to do."

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