The Great Tank War is among us and we must do what’s right to gain significant ground on the front – lose to a truly terribly-run team.

It was fun to be in the league spotlight once again on Hockey Night in Canada against the Toronto Maple Leafs and we continue the run against the fellow Original Six franchises, but on a smaller scale.

Facing off against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night can prove to be an important game in the long-run of this season. They are one point ahead in the overall standings with one more game played than our Detroit Red Wings, above the Habs are Chicago with six more points and one more game played than the Wings as well. To lose this game, the Wings would surely be in a comfortable position in the bottom-5, a good place to win any of the three lotteries.

Let’s hope for a similar game against the Leafs – young players playing well but eventually lose in regulation. What a time to be alive as a Wings fan.

This is a boring hockey club. A lack of pace in skating and shot attempts has brought them to this point in the season that everyone is wondering where the kids are – I am too. It’s nice to see Evgeny Svechnikov get some time with the big team, but what good is it doing with him playing less than 10 minutes in every NHL game he has played in. He only has one goal, so on paper it seems like he shouldn’t be getting the chances that everyone wants him to. But as our Cameron Koum pointed out, he needs to be out there to understand his potential. He currently leads the Wings in Expected Goals/hour.

Other than that, it’s nice to see this season from Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha – they are our hope for the future and they are showing it this season.

Don’t get me started on this defence.

The Montreal Canadiens are always a team to watch – for amazement or to laugh hysterically at. Terrible move after terrible move and this is the team they are left with, a hodgepodge of players in different time in their careers. Not saying that’s a bad thing, but you have to feel for Jeff Petry, he deserves better than this.

They have the roster spots for young players that the Wings do not, including Nikita Scherbak, Charles Hudon, Artturi Lehkonen, Jacob de la Rose and Noah Juulsen in your lineup is a key way to make your team watchable again at this time of the season. Although with only two wins in your last twelve games and a goal differential of -15 in that timespan – that’s rough to look at.

The height of their season was the 10-1 win over our beloved hockey team, so let’s hope to bring some smiles to those francophone faces.

After yet another rough outing against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Howard is seeing his save percentage shrink to a .909 and proving to be the biggest drop in between seasons, in his whole career. Already, he has the first losing record and now approaching his worst season in many different ways.

Carey “his contract is how long?” Price has had a rough go this season with the Canadiens. Just three years removed from his Vezina, Hart, Jennings and Pearson-winning season, Price is a groinless shadow of his former self. His Quality Start% has never been lower in his career and neither has his Save Percentage with a .901. To be having a worse season than Jimmy Howard is a work of tank art.

This heavily-contested tank battle will be on Fox Sports Detroit Plus at 7:30pm EST, and RDS if tu aimes le club de hockey français. It’s almost like the television networks are letting you watch something other than this truly horrific upcoming hockey game.

But don’t worry, here at WingsNation we’ll keep you up to date with live reaction to the game on our lovely twitter account.