Larkin: Wings should be driven by hunger, anger
Motivation is there: ‘We have to keep building this thing’
The pain of just missing out, of being eliminated from contention in their last game of the regular season, is one Dylan Larkin hope stays with his Detroit Red Wings teammates.
It has been an emotionally and physically taxing couple of weeks for the Wings, culminating with winning their last three games only to find out that for an eighth straight year, the franchise would not be in the playoffs.
“I’m pretty sure at some point I asked for meaningful games in April and we got that,” Larkin said Thursday as he met with reporters, two days after the Wings’ hopes were crushed. “We came up short. Now it’s about how we get in and going from there. We have to keep building this thing to get there and stay there.
“I was all in on hoping we’d make the playoffs, and now I’m trying to get healthy and get back to work. I don’t really have interest in a vacation or anything. The momentum we built for the guys returning, hopefully there’s a hunger there all summer, and a little bit of anger and hurt from what we just went through. Hopefully, it’s there for them all summer. I know it will be for me.”
The Wings reached 91 points, an 11-point improvement on 2022-23. They had a chance to clinch going into their final game, but even though they won, the Washington Capitals also reached 91 points, and had the tie breaker.
“Probably one of the best experiences of my career,” Larkin said. “Hardest experiences. It sucks that there was no reward, but it was a great experience to find out a lot about myself and our team and playing in these last 13 games since I was injured. We played against playoff teams and teams we were fighting with for positioning until Montreal in the last two games of the year. It was very intense and very demanding and a lot of fun.”
Larkin finished with 69 points in 68 games, his 1.01 points-per-game average leading the team. He missed two games at the end of November for personal reasons (Larkin posted to social media that he and his wife had dealt with the loss of their unborn child), four in December after a scary hit rendered him unconscious on the ice and seven in
March.
“It was probably one of the most difficult years of my life,” Larkin said. “I don’t like to talk about it too much, and I thank you guys for respecting that. There were times where I was going through it and I felt like I needed space. The guys were so good to me. Maybe I wasn’t able to be the best or really be myself, with all the things going on, but the guys were so good to me and my wife was really strong for me to allow me to come back and focus on hockey and the last month really just give it all I had.
“It means a lot to me to be able to sit here and say that. Through that and through injuries, I gave it all I had and I hope that was contagious for the other guys.”
The Wings went 2-6 without Larkin in March, losing twice to the lowly Arizona Coyotes.
“It’s such a hole in the lineup,” Patrick Kane said. “I think you saw when we got him back — it’s incredible, his importance to this team, whether just on the ice, or off the ice, his leadership, his desire to win, how good he wants to be for this organization and how he wants to get over the top here.
“I played with him in the World Championship and saw that he was kind of a natural leader. Just very impressed with him.”
Larkin is the longest-serving active Wings player; his rookie year, 2015-16, was the last time the team made the playoffs. Four years ago they were the worst team in the NHL. Tuesday night, he described it as “gutting” to be eliminated again this year, after coming as close as possible.
“There’s been a short time to reflect,” Larkin said. “It’s a mix of emotions. After the game was tough, yesterday was tough, but I was able to get together with the guys and our wives and it made me feel better. Just sharing stories and being together helped, talking about it. It’s been hard, but there’s so many good moments, so many good memories of this season, and I’m very proud of this group.”