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Larkin growing steadily into more prominent role |
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The moment remained etched in the mind of Dylan Larkin, and that, as much as anything, speaks volumes as to where his head is at in terms of his hockey future.
The Detroit Red Wings were playing in Buffalo last week when Larkin’s mistake led to a turnover and ultimately, a goal in the game’s early moments by Sabres forward Jack Eichel.
“I thought I did a fly by on the puck,” Larkin explained. “Eichs picked it up and took it down. I kind of put our defensemen in a bad spot where they were flat footed going the other way and he was flying.”
Before the period was over and just seconds after the Sabres had made it 2-0, Larkin got the Wings on the board, sparking a rally that led to a 6-3 Detroit victory.
“That’s what I love about him,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill explained of Larkin’s response. “He’s totally self-accountable. He’s not an excuse maker. He looks at that type of situation and says, ‘I’ve got to be better than that.’
“I think he thought he could’ve stopped on the puck and had the puck and went the other way. That’s why he’ll become the very best he can, because he’s so self-accountable.”
It’s easy to envision a future not so far off where Larkin is the Wings’ No. 1 center, the team’s top scorer, and someday, likely even bestowed with the captaincy.
The first two of those things are rapidly evolving. Entering Tuesday’s game at Columbus against the Blue Jackets, Larkin leads the Wings with 59 points. He’s scored five goals in the past seven games, giving him 14 on the season. While captain Henrik Zetterberg technically still plays down the middle on Detroit’s top line, it’s generally Larkin’s unit that draws the toughest matchup against the other team’s best forward unit.
“He wants those matchups,” Blashill said. “He wants to play against Eichel. He wants to play against (Pittsburgh’s Sidney) Crosby. And he knows to do it you’ve got to play a great 200-foot game.”
That was the gauntlet thrown down at Larkin’s skates entering this season, to develop his game more completely, so that he could be counted on all over the ice.
Larkin spent his first season playing on Zetterberg’s wing, and with the protection of the team’s best all-around player, he flourished, potting a team-leading 23 goals and performing the NHL All-Star Game.
Last season, when Pavel Datsyuk abruptly bolted without honoring the last year of his contract, it threw Larkin to the wolves. At 20, he’d be required to be one of the Wings’ top-two centers, facing tough-checking opponents, and it did not go well.
“My second year was hard,” Larkin admitted. “I wasn’t playing with (Zetterberg) and Pav was gone. I was trying to find a way to contribute on my own. It did come easy the first year and I kind of had to figure out how to produce and produce on my own.”
By the end of the season, Larkin seemed to be figuring it out. It carried over into a strong performance for the USA at the world championship, and into this season as well.
“Coming into the year, we put a lot of pressure on Dylan to be a 200-foot center,” Blashill said. “Boy he’s done a pretty good job of that overall. We asked him to be more of a give and go player. He’s done a good job of that. That shows with his assists.”
Through it all, Larkin remains his harshest critic, and that competitiveness and drive to consistently make forward strides is another reason why the Wings figure his game will only continue to grow in leaps and bounds.
“There’s still little things I need to get better on, and big things I need to get better on,” Larkin said. “It seems like every mistake I made this year, or a key mistake at a big time, it was in the back of our net. There were a lot of times where I walked back in this locker room and we’d lost by one goal, and if I didn’t make that mistake we would have been in overtime and had a better chance to win.
“I still need to get better, but I think it’s a huge improvement from last year.”
Coreau Down
Jared Coreau was slated to make the start in goal for the Wings on Tuesday, but he was stricken with the flu.
Instead, Jimmy Howard will be the starter and Tom McCollum was summoned from AHL Grand Rapids to serve as back up.
Ehn To GR
The Wings added another one of their European prospects to the roster of the AHL Griffins when center Christoffer Ehn was assigned there on Tuesday.
Ehn, 21, Detroit’s 106th pick in the 2014 NHL entry draft, recently completed his season with Frolunda in Sweden. The 6-2, 180-pounder produced 7-10-17 numbers in 50 games and was plus-two.
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