The Detroit Red Wings will face the Columbus Blue Jackets in back-to-back games as the two teams race for a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Red Wings currently sit two points ahead of the Blue Jackets with 66 points. This would have been unthinkable two months ago as the Red Wings replaced Derek Lalonde with Todd McLellan. The second of these games will be played outdoors at Ohio Stadium as part of the NHL’s Stadium Series. This will be the eighth Stadium Series game at a college football stadium.
Two players who will play in these games are Dylan Larkin, captain of the Red Wings, and defenseman Zach Werenski of the Blue Jackets. These two players played for team USA at the recent Four Nations Faceoff. Beyond that, the two played for the University of Michigan. Both Larkin and Werenski rank in the top two in points recorded for both of their teams. Larkin was one of the standouts of the Four Nations Faceoff, with two points in four games during the tournament.
Werenski is one of the leading scorers on the Blue Jackets, which is rare for a defenseman. Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche has scored 22 goals and added 44 assists for 66 points in 60 games. This is the fourth-most goals scored on the Avalanche roster. Werenski has the second most in the NHL with 18.
Larkin was not the only Red Wing to represent the team at the Four Nations. Lucas Raymond represented Team Sweden at the tournament and had three assists in three games. Raymond is only 22 years old, and this tournament is seen as a coming out for not only him but also Larkin. Raymond has scored 22 goals and added 41 assists in 58 games played for the Red Wings this season. This is one more than Werenski’s 62 points in 57 games played.
McLellan was complimentary of Raymond’s game after the Four Nations break. “His game that we see here on a regular basis transferred to that type of environment, and any time that happens, that’s a real good thing,” McLellan said. “Sometimes players go and try to do too much, or they’re afraid of the stage and they don’t want to make mistakes, so they shrivel up. That wasn’t him at all.” This is not to say that McLellan will not call a player out when he feels he needs to.
This may have been the reason for Larkin’s poor showing in the first game of two against the Jets. The Red Wings would lose this game by a score of 5-2. Larkin was on the ice for 16:44 on this night. In that time Larkin only had one shot on goal. Perhaps this was just a bad night for Larkin, but it would not be hard to believe that he was just tired coming off the Four Nations tournament. McLellan did not mince words after the game.
“I can’t beat around the bush — he was missing,” the Wings head coach said after their 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. “He’s a big boy, he can handle hearing that. He’s going to hear it from me. Just a lot of mishandles, unsure plays that he usually makes.” This poor play is certainly not the norm for Larkin. If the Red Wings are going to make it back to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in nine years, Larkin cannot have many more performances like this.
I have argued in the past that the Four Nations Faceoff break came at the wrong time for the Red Wings. In three games since the Four Nations break, the Red Wings have a 2-1 record. Prior to this, the Red Wings had won seven of their 10 games. During the first period of their first game after the break, McLellan thought that the Red Wings’ play had been ragged. With 34 games remaining in the 2024-25 season, the Red Wings have the most difficult schedule of any NHL team. Two games against the Blue Jackets, who are both chasing a wild card spot, is one example of this.
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