Preseason Game 1 – Montreal

I didn’t see or even hear the Red Wings’ preseason opener last night so I can’t speak to Tomas Kopecky’s hit on Mathieu Carle or the puck that Nicklas Lidstrom took to the face or the shootout loss to Montreal.

Here are some other people’s thoughts…

Red Wings Corner – Tomas Kopecky’s knockout hit on Mathieu Carle was effective, so much so that at first glance you assumed it was dirty. But both sides said after tonight’s game that Kopecky’s hit was clean and that Carle was caught admiring his own pass.

“On the first thought, it was a bad hit or somebody blind-sided him,” said Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau. “I came down. I looked at it on the tape. The timing was there. Mathieu had his head down a little bit. Kopecky came across, he wasn’t trying to gain speed, he was trying to make contact with Mathieu. The shoulder just hit the head.”

MacLeod has also posted his game notes.

The Windsor Star’s Dave Waddell (amonth others) has a note on Lidstrom’s injury.

Windsor Star – Detroit’s Nick Lidstrom left three minutes into the third period after a deflected shot cut him badly above his right eye. After getting several stitches to close the wound, he joined Carle at the hospital for precautionary testing.

“It has nothing to do with his eye, that’s the good news,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said.

Nevertheless, Bill at A2Y already has the stress train ready.

Tomas Holmstrom and Justin Abdelkader scored for Detroit. Matt D’Agostino and Tomas Deauregard scored for the Canadiens with Montreal’s Anderi Markov notching the only shootout marker.