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MONTREAL — It was a night when even the weather seemed a throwback.
Above-ankle slush, snow-clogged streets — and the Red Wings and Gordie Howe in town to take on the Habs.
Howe, however, was only there to drop the puck along with Jean Béliveau, two legendary Canadian captains performing a ceremonial faceoff with a Finn, Montreal captain Saku Koivu, and a Swede, Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom.
How times change.
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When it was all over, the Detroit Red Wings had whipped the Montreal Canadiens 4-1, the only sport being what they made of what had been billed as the rivalry.
The Canadiens, heading into their centennial, are honouring each of the five other pre-expansion teams — though no rivalry quite ranks with the Red Wings.
It seemed in the 1950s there were only the two teams in all of hockey — "I sort of felt sorry for the other guys," former Montreal great Dickie Moore said — as each created Stanley Cup dynasties and seemed destined to meet in the finals most springs.
Two teams, two goaltenders — Detroit's Terry Sawchuk and Montreal's Jacques Plante — and two great stars, Howe and Maurice (Rocket) Richard, who passed away seven years ago.
Now, the only Rocket in the Howe's world is tiny teacup poodle back in his Michigan home. "I like this one, though," the 79-year-old legend chuckled.
It is hard to convey what such a rivalry once was — it was even Habs versus Wings the night of the Richard riot on March 17, 1955 — given that, in the current NHL, Detroit had not visited Montreal since October of 2003.
But no one does pomp and ceremony like British royalty or the Montreal Canadiens. With the sounds of Bruce Springsteen's Glory Days still echoing, they brought out a string of old heroes, including Moore and Ted Lindsay, both 82, 77-year-old Marcel Pronovost, 76-year-old Béliveau, Alex Delvecchio, who turned 76 Tuesday, 75-year-old Jean-Guy Talbot, to honour what once was.
And to show what now is.
"I hate seeing guys limp," Howe said as he stood with Béliveau waiting for the ceremony to begin.
He meant Lindsay and Moore, but he could just as well have been thinking of the current Canadiens and where they stand against today's Red Wings.
Heading into Tuesday night, Montreal had a record of 269-197-96-1 against Detroit. The Canadiens have 24 Stanley Cup banners hanging from their rafters, compared with the Wings' 10.
And yet, Les Glorieux have not been to the final since they last won Canada's last Stanley Cup championship in 1993. Detroit, on the other hand, has been the NHL's team with the most wins over the past decade and can claim three Cup titles in those 10 years.
Outstripping the rest of the league again this season, the Wings are headed for another 100-point year, which will mark the eighth consecutive season for such an accomplishment and, rather appropriately, will tie the record set by the Canadiens a generation ago.
The Canadiens, on the other hand, are simply one more Canadian NHL team seemingly in free fall these days. They had lost four of their five previous games before Tuesday night — and now five of their past six.
Even so, Detroit head coach Mike Babcock was taking nothing for granted. For good luck, he had on his red silk McGill University tie — harking back to his time as the captain of the school's hockey team.
But there was no need for any talisman. The Canadiens — ridiculed recently by Habs legend Guy Lafleur as a team of four fourth lines — were simply not up to the test, being outshot 34-16 and badly outplayed.
Injured Montreal goaltender Cristobal Huet recently said his "fragile" team seemed "a little weak between the ears," but on this night it seemed in the legs, as well.
"If you can't get excited to play a game in the NHL when there's 21,000 people screaming," dejected Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said, "you have a problem."
But they couldn't. Detroit scored first on a giveaway that allowed Pavel Datsyuk to pump twice before firing a wrist shot past 20-year-old rookie goaltender Carey Price.
Montreal briefly tied the score in the second period when Chris Higgins was able to lift a backhander past Dominik Hasek, more than twice Price's age at 42.
But that was as close as the Habs came. Stunningly skilled Datsyuk scored again after he knocked a Montreal pass out of the air, swirled and fired another wrist shot past poor Price.
"I wanted to score a hat trick, which would be my first," Datsyuk said. "It's still my dream."
The Wings went ahead 3-1 on a Niklas Kronvall shot from the point, and then 4-1 when Datsyuk dropped the puck to Detroit's leading scorer, Henrik Zetterberg, and he snapped a shot that should never have beaten Price, but did.
By the third period, Montreal's hapless power play was being roundly booed by the same crowd that had stood and cheered for Howe and Béliveau.
But if the 21,273 in the stands were unhappy, the Red Wings were not.
Lidstrom stood in the dressing room and considered this rare trip to Detroit's once-great rival, Montreal.
"I like the snow," he said.
