There isn’t a player on the Detroit Red Wings who has been with the organization longer, or borne more of its setbacks, than team captain Dylan Larkin, the lone remaining player from the club’s last Stanley Cup Playoffs appearance in 2016.
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Despite setting a career high with 34 goals this season, Dylan Larkin suffered an injury at a critical point. Although he eventually gutted it out and played through it, he was unable to carry his team over the finish line.
The Red Wings now hold the unfortunate distinction of owning the NHL’s longest active postseason drought, after the Buffalo Sabres, who hadn’t qualified since 2011, finally ended theirs.
“It’s been hard, not great. I think it’s been a very difficult end to the season,” Larkin said on Friday morning. “Never a fun time when you miss the playoffs, but especially in this fashion, and kind of being here again. So today is not a pleasant day around the rink, that’s for sure.”
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During Detroit’s stretch run in March, they often found themselves trailing by multiple goals against opponents they were directly competing with in the standings.
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Head coach Todd McLellan repeatedly called for a higher level of compete from his players, while questions also arose about “outside noise” potentially creeping into the locker room.
“I mean, that’s a fair question, and I think, like I said, part of the tightness was kind of dipping your toe into a game, and when you’re anxious for a game, there are tendencies as a player to go out there and see what it’s going to be like,” Larkin said about Detroit’s slow starts down the stretch. “Is it going to be a hard night or an easy night? Again, I don’t think that was the story every night.”
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As the team captain, a position he’s held since the beginning of the 2021-22 campaign, Larkin accepted responsibility for not, as he put it, driving the play more.
“But especially at home, down the stretch, you have to know going into a game that you’re going to go out there, and part of that is on me as captain of the team, a forward that plays a driving game,” he said.
“I should probably have been out there more, driving the play early in the games to set the tone early for our team, and that’s a mindset that would go through the entire lineup.”
As a Metro Detroit native who grew up watching the Red Wings’ glory years, Larkin understands the weight of the moment better than others. He carries the burden of the captaincy once held by franchise legends such as Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Henrik Zetterberg.
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Larkin signed an eight-year extension in 2023 to remain with the Red Wings and is committed to seeing the process through.
“I wanted to be here, and I want to be here to help this team in any way I can to win the Stanley Cup,” he said.
“We need to get the Detroit Red Wings back in the playoffs,” he concluded. “Not just me.”
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