Dylan Larkin is still a Red Wing, even though he doesn't want to be. His offseason trade request, arriving after 11 seasons with the club and a mere five playoff games (all as a rookie), symbolized the franchise's inability to shift out of neutral and forced fans to stare the worst-case scenario in the face: After all these years of waiting, maybe the Wings remain closer to the No. 1 draft pick than a playoff run. As the team's second-best goal-scorer and top-line center, Larkin would be impossible to replace quickly, so him deciding that he's given up on this project and would rather just get to the postseason with a contender now that he's in his 30s is a frustrating setback.
It's an issue, too, that has yet to be resolved as the Red Wings wrap their first week of regular season play. The list of teams that Larkin is reportedly willing to waive his no-movement clause for is tiny and elite (not to mention cap-crunched), and Detroit, which doesn't even have a non-interim GM at the moment, has yet to swing a deal. Consequently, Larkin was stripped of his team captaincy, and he got lustily booed by fans when his name was announced on opening night. He sat out the first two losses of the season with injury while the Wings allowed five goals over four-and-a-half periods before they even got on the board. And when he returned to the ice in front of a sad-looking turnout on Tuesday night against Ottawa, those who chose to voice their opinion were generally not happy to see him.
But this game played out differently than the Wings' previous poor showings. While Ottawa got the first goal not even three minutes in, the men in red mounted a meaningful response, scoring four unanswered en route to a 5-3 win. And it was Larkin who played the biggest role of anyone—not as a pariah, but as a talented forward who has consistently injected at least a little bit of light into otherwise dark passages.
With the score 1-1 in the latter stages of the first, the Red Wings having just squandered a power play, Larkin took a shot off Samuel Ersson and then knocked the puck from behind the net out into the corner. He continued to hang around in the goalie's house as Alex DeBrincat interrupted a Sens clearance. The Wings' top scorer from the last two seasons sent the puck to new acquisition Viktor Arvidsson, who was on the netminder's three. Ersson shifted to the right, Arvidsson centered it to Larkin in the foyer, and Detroit's deposed captain had his first goal and point of the season. As he skated back to the bench, he lifted his hand in acknowledgement of the fans who stood and cheered.
Something close to a mirror image of the goal gave the Wings a 3-1 lead early in the second. Again on the power play, Larkin staked a claim to a dangerous area and took a point-blank shot that was stopped by Ersson. Arvidsson entered from the wing (lowercase) to grab the rebound, and he showed no hesitation on the finish. That's one goal and one assist for Larkin on the year.
That wasn't all from an eventful Tuesday evening. The Wings and Sens have a recent history of feistiness, and Larkin was in the middle of a tussle that took place just before the second intermission. Taking exception to a hit on DeBrincat, Larkin confronted Ottawa's Ridly Greig as the horn sounded, and in doing so he opened up a big tough-guy convention that burst into multiple confrontations. Nine penalties to five players came from this disagreement, plus a memorable taunt from Sens pest Nick Cousins, who mimed ripping an imaginary "C" off his jersey when he had Larkin's attention.
Larkin went on to earn first-star honors in the Wings' first win of the season. In the postgame, he was diplomatic about the boos, saying, "I’m trying to be a man and face it, and I understand why that’s happening.” Without the trade request, this would have been a nice, fun early-season win headlined by a lovely performance from the team's longtime star. With the trade request, however, it's something weirder. The relationship between Larkin and Detroit seems to be, for all intents and purposes, over. But they're not officially done just yet. It's hard to measure what exactly the value is of him playing out however many more games for this mediocre-looking squad when every local reception is awkward and every contribution he makes goes down a little bitter. Maybe it's punitive. Maybe it's as simple as a goal and an assist.
