Larkin’s return gives Red Wings boost in win against Islanders
The cheers came on his first shift, cherishing a sight absent for nearly three weeks.
Dylan Larkin’s return sparked the Detroit Red Wings, giving them the boost they needed on a big night. They had a three-point lead on the New York Islanders for the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference coming into Thursday’s game, and strengthened that to five points with a 6-3 victory.
The Wings (36-28-6) have earned six points in their last four games, restoring a bit of the buffer lost during their recent sevengame skid.
Fans at Little Caesars Arena celebrated Larkin’s first shift and made more noise when he scored near the end of the second period. It was the third line that starred, though, with Andrew Copp scoring twice, Christian Fischer contributing a goal and two assists, and Michael Rasmussen, two assists.
Shortly after Copp’s goal early in the third period, Patrick Kane finished a pass from Alex DeBrincat to give the Wings a four-goal lead. That lessened as Jean-Gabriel Pageau converted on New York’s fourth power play and Mathew Barzal made it 5-3 with 8:40 to play.
The Islanders pulled their goalie with roughly five minutes to play for the extra attacker, making for a nail-biting stretch until Larkin’s shot from center ice restored Detroit’s cushion.
The Wings have 12 games left in the season, and next play Saturday at the Nashville Predators, the first of five straight on the road.
Stability
Larkin hadn’t played since suffering a lower-body injury in the March 2 game against the Florida Panthers. The Wings missed him terribly, evidenced by their going 2-6 without him this last stretch; on the season, they’re 4-10 without their captain.
The Wings struggled to fill Larkin’s spot in the middle on the top line, indicating that strengthening the center position needs to be addressed in the offseason. J.T. Compher and Joe Veleno have both played in the spot, but with Larkin back, he centered Lucas Raymond and David Perron, and Compher skated between DeBrincat and Kane.
Progress
Having reached (hopefully) a nadir with the way they started Tuesday, the Wings could only improve. The boost from getting Larkin back showed as the Wings displayed more energy and zone time, testing Ilya Sorokin with some close-up chances. James Reimer held up his end, making an especially big save on Hudson Fasching when he had a stone-cold open chance from the left side down low. Three of the nine saves Reimer made in the first 20 minutes came while Olli Määttä was serving a penalty. Raymond drew a penalty just past the midpoint, giving the Wings some momentum. Their defensive play was noticeably improved, and they avoided
surrendering a goal in the first period for the first time since March 2.
Taking the lead
At 11:13 of the second period, the Wings did something they haven’t done since March 6: Scored the first goal. Fischer had the puck behind the Islanders defense and went to his forehand to score for the third time in the last four games. The Wings haven’t played much with the lead this month (7:04 in Colorado on March 6 and 22:20 at home vs. Buffalo on Saturday) and didn’t get to enjoy the bump from Fischer’s goal for much more than two minutes. Mike Reilly made it 1-1 at 13:25 when he fired a shot that Reimer seemed to stop only to watch the puck trickle underneath and into Detroit’s net. It was the third line that came through again when Fischer drove the net and Copp connected on the rebound, making it 2-1 with 4 minutes to play in the second period.