Dylan Larkin hopped over the boards at 1:51 of the first period on Tuesday and heard it immediately. The boos came again when he touched the puck. They kept coming for most of the opening period, and then they stopped.
At 13:14 he banged in a pass from Viktor Arvidsson on the power play to put the Detroit Red Wings ahead 2-1, and Little Caesars Arena cheered him. He wasn’t about to push his luck with the celebration.
“I don’t want to offend anyone with over-celebrating, with knowing the situation that’s going on,” Larkin said, per NHL.com. “But again, with all that, scoring a goal in the NHL, scoring a goal for this team when we needed it, it felt pretty good.”
Why are Red Wings fans booing Dylan Larkin?
Larkin asked the club for a trade after last season, handing over a short list of teams he would waive his no-trade clause for, and was stripped of the captaincy before this one. Detroit has now missed the playoffs 10 seasons running, the longest drought in franchise history and the longest active drought in the league, and Larkin hasn’t played a postseason game since his rookie year in 2015-16.
He isn’t arguing with the reaction.
“I’m trying to be a man and face it, and I understand why that’s happening,” he said. “But again, like I said to you guys at the start of the season, I was going to try to show up with my play, and it was nice to be out there with the guys and get a win.”
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The rest of the night ran much the same way. He assisted on another Arvidsson power-play goal, drew a penalty, then took a roughing minor at the end of the second going after Ridly Greig for a hit on Alex DeBrincat, sparking a scrum in which Ottawa’s Nick Cousins touched his jersey where the ‘C’ used to be. Larkin laughed that one off. The boos returned in the third, and when he was named first star the building gave him both at once.
He also pointed up to his 16-month-old daughter, Lennyn, after the goal.
“She came last year, but I think she’s more aware of what’s going on and will be able to watch that goal tomorrow,” he said. “That was pretty special.”
Larkin praised
Head coach Todd McLellan sounded relieved to have the hockey back in the foreground.
“Sometimes you just need to get back to playing hockey,” McLellan said. “Like, what happened, happened, and all this stuff, it’s enough already. Just go play hockey, and that’s what he did.”
Larkin spoke for roughly eight minutes afterwards, an unusually long session, and was careful not to overstate what one night had fixed. Asked whether he’d rebuilt his teammates’ trust, he wasn’t willing to claim it.
“I don’t know about trust. That thing usually takes time,” Larkin said. “But I know with a group of guys in hockey, it’s through your actions, not your words.”
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