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Dylan Larkin was the subject of a post by Jim Biringer. It’s a good read, I’d encourage you to take a look. Essentially, though Larkin isn’t up for league MVP, he is clearly Detroit’s MVP.

The Captain broke 30 goals for the 3rd straight season (first Wing to do so since Zetterberg), he’s got 67 points in 66 games played (33g, 34a) and when he’s not there we’ve seen what it looks like. Mic’d up, you can hear instruction, encouragement and the occasional “nudge” as the Waterford, MI native stays engaged on and off the ice.

On the other side of things, Ville Husso was recalled from Grand Rapids. Not to get into play, but to go back to rehab and (personal opinion) potentially luck at a surgical option. It took one pregame warmup (part of the warmup) for him to know something wasn’t right. There wasn’t really any thought from the fan base about the intended starter seeing ice time in the last few (at least in this forum) but this may be a more serious issue than originally thought. Hopefully a summer of rehab or whatever the chose route is will be the trick to get him back on the ice.

It’s in Lyon that Detroit’s post season fate has been placed upon in terms of net presence. Tonight is one of two must wins. The Wings need Washington to lose one of two as they’re tied in points. Philly is also tied at 87 points but only has one game left. Two wins erases that threat along with Pittsburgh who sit at 86 points and would sit one point behind Detroit even if both teams won their final games.

In the Yzerman era, this is clearly as close as the team has come to getting into the post season. The pressure has to be balanced with confidence and being clear headed on the ice. Montreal made waves against Philly and in a rough year players are looking to stand out as the summer hits.

There’s nothing left to say. The overtime win against Toronto bought Detroit a ticket to stay in the mix. After letting a 3 goal lead slip away in the 3rd, that seemed miraculous. Now the team has to give everything they have in back to back games that have travel in between. It’s not an ideal circumstance but it’s the reality this team will face.

By Wednesday we’ll either be discussing the next season or the post season. That’s how quickly this will all go down. Enjoy the last two for what has been a season of peaks and valleys.

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