A booed captain turns into a cheered scorer
Dylan Larkin walked out of the tunnel against Ottawa on Tuesday not knowing which way the crowd would swing. He scored, added an assist, and the boos turned to cheers by the end of the night. Detroit won 5-3.
The backdrop has not changed. Larkin, 30, requested a trade in the offseason, and nothing has been said publicly to take that request back. He missed the first two games with an upper-body injury and has never played for another NHL club across 12 seasons. He is a former captain who is still wearing a Red Wings sweater while the question hangs over the room.
On Friday, Detroit closes a four-game homestand against the Seattle Kraken, and Larkin will be under the same microscope.
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Detroit finds help around him
Alex DeBrincat, last season’s team-leading goal scorer, had two goals and an assist against the Senators. His first came just 32 seconds after Ottawa took the lead, a quick answer that steadied the building. He then sealed the win into an empty net. Viktor Arvidsson, one of the key offseason additions, scored for the second straight game. Coach Todd McLellan singled out DeBrincat after the win.
The Red Wings had opened the season with two losses, so the Ottawa result was the first real sign of life. They also swept both meetings with Seattle last year, and Emmitt Finnie scored in each of those games.
Seattle arrives bruised
The Kraken are 2-2-0 and coming off a 6-2 loss at Vegas on Tuesday. They trailed 5-0 after two periods, and both of their goals arrived in the third. They also piled up 43 penalty minutes, a number coach Lane Lambert will not want to see repeated. He credited Vegas as a strong team and said he was proud of how his players pushed in the final period.
Jared McCann leads Seattle with five points, and four skaters share the team lead with two goals apiece. The bigger problem is on the back end. Defenseman Ryan Lindgren went on injured reserve Thursday with an upper-body injury and is expected to miss four to six weeks.
For Detroit, a win would send the team out of its homestand with momentum and a second straight night of positive noise around Larkin. For Seattle, it is a chance to reset before the road trip stretches on.
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