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Wings' Larkin keeps turning heads |
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His second game-winning goal in as many games and his first on-ice altercation as an NHLer, Detroit Red Wings rookie Dylan Larkin was left with all kinds of reasons to smile after Tuesday’s 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“I think maybe I did some things that made those guys mad, but it’s just hockey and the way it goes,” Larkin said.
His third-period tally six minutes into the frame snapped a 1-1 tie and provided Detroit with its second straight victory. It wasn’t as spectacular as Larkin’s wrap-around marker Saturday that proved to be the winner in a 5-3 verdict at Ottawa, but Larkin’s second-period tangle with no less a player than Lightning captain Steven Stamkos certainly brought the Joe Louis Arena crowd to their feet.
“I didn’t know it was him,” Larkin claimed. “Obviously, one of the best players in the league. I don’t know, it’s just hockey, we got caught in the moment. He didn’t like it. It happens.
“I just thought it was a hockey game. High emotion, close-checking game, so I think it’s going to happen.”
As to physical play, Larkin would rather leave that to others on the team.
“No I don’t (like it),” he said. “I don’t know, I guess I’d rather have the puck.”
The Wings are simply delighted to have Larkin on their side.
“He’s amazing,” teammate Riley Sheahan said. “His skill and the way he skates and he’s just a good kid off the ice, too. You put that together and I think he makes a pretty special player.
“We’re glad to have him.”
The Detroit veterans weren’t surprised to see the 19-year-old Larkin so willing to scuffle with Stamkos.
“He’s tenacious and he’s hard on the puck and he’s really intense,” Sheahan said. “If you add that to a guy with skill and a good head on his shoulders, it makes a special player.”
A dozen games into his NHL career, Larkin has scored four times and added five assists. He’s also a plus-10, which ranks him tops among rookies and second overall in the NHL. It’s also the best among all NHL forwards and Larkin is the only forward in the top four.
“To be honest, we don’t look lots at some of those stats, not that they don’t mean anything,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “They mean something. Being on for lots of goals for and not much against means something, so I don’t want to totally downplay it but we spend much more time, especially with our forwards, looking at our own scoring chances, plus-minus, how many scoring chances they’ve created compared to how many scoring chances they’ve given up and within that how many Grade-A scoring chances compared to how many they’ve given up.
“But he’s done very well in that stat as well.”
While he’s pleased with Larkin’s play, Blashill isn’t ready to anoint him to the hall of fame just yet.
“He’s done a very good job,” Blashill said. “That’s undeniable. His impact on games has been very good. Does he have to get better at stuff? Absolutely. Was there lots of stuff over the first two periods I thought he has to continue to improve at? One-hundred percent.
“Our job as coaches is to make sure we continue to hold him accountable as he is having success just like we hold anybody else accountable and we will do that. I think he’ll continue to improve because he wants to improve. He’ll get better because he wants to get better.
“His impact so far has been very good.”
The facets that Larkin needs to work at and improve are the sorts of items you’d normally associate with the exuberance of youth.
“There’s lots of little things,” Blashill said. “Making sure we’re stopping on the puck, making sure we’re managing the game. Sometimes you’ve got to just live another day and take your ice back, be F3 and not giving up an odd-numbered rush.
“Those are things when you’re a young guy and you want it so bad sometimes you go forward when you’re supposed to go backwards. It’s just a lot of little teaching things that we’ll continue to help him get better at.”
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