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Detroit had a 4 game segment broken into two very different halves. Kane’s Chicago homecoming was the stuff of childhood dreams. Imagine being the player the won the Stanley Cup with an overtime goal. You stop the game, you stop the series and you end the drought. It’s the dramatic winning shot that only a select few in history will ever experience. A hall of fame defenseman calls you the best American to ever play the game during his own ceremony, and you win the game in overtime and people are celebrating like you’re still on the home team. Two days later the team explodes for 8 goals while you’re still on that same adrenaline rush.

When the Islanders came to town the pregame of Kane fist bumping his son seemed off. He’s usually all smiles, but looked stoic. That emotional “gut punch” look. The team loses in a back and forth game that was still fairly close. Then Florida. The arc of those games has every human emotion that can be played out embedded in their DNA. Emotionally, the team looked completely drained after facing the Panthers. Now, the rush to the end is starting.

The season builds up to the trade deadline. It’s the long ride up the first hill of a giant roller coaster. In the front car, there’s that split second where you may be looking straight down and take the deep breath before the plunge. Detroit is taking that breath before a trip out west. No one knows for sure what’s going to happen, and you have to put 60 games in the rear view mirror. You have to finish the job and last year it was a broken team after Bert and Hronek left town. They replayed Larkin’s presser and it’s brutal to watch. Very real overwhelming emotion.

Someone in the room has to take charge right now and all the bruises and exhaustion of what I think is the toughest season in North America have to be shelved to be able to try and get into the hardest post season in North American sports. There has to be that regrouping and it comes from the players, not the coach. From the sessions to the plane ride, who is that voice? Is it larkin alone or leadership by committee? The team now has to play one game at a time, no one can be overlooked as even non contenders are playing for paychecks at this time of year.

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