Larkin has tough lessons pay off with Red Wings
Forward growing in third season under coach Blashill
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He knew he needed to do it.
Larkin had excelled in his first 50 games as a rookie in 2015-16, scoring 35 points (17 goals, 18 assists). He had shown holes in his game after that -- not stopping on pucks, not managing the puck well -- but the stretch run wasn't the time to teach.
So after the season, Blashill told Larkin it was his job to make him a complete player. When Larkin didn't do what he was supposed to do early in 2016-17, he got his ice time cut, or got an earful on the bench, or got a video session.
"A lot of times, I didn't like it, or I wanted it to be different," Larkin said. "But there's really nothing he could have done [differently]. It was all in my play."
Larkin made progress with the Red Wings as the season went on and became Blashill's go-to guy for the United States at the 2017 IIHF World Championship, playing in all situations.
He leads the Red Wings with 23 points (four goals, 19 assists) entering their Wednesday Night Rivalry game against the Boston Bruins at Little Caesars Arena (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV). He's on pace for 63 points, 18 more than his NHL career high of 45 (23 goals, 22 assists) from 2015-16.
Though he hasn't scored in 10 games and is on pace for 11 goals, which would be an NHL career low, he hasn't lacked chances. He had two great ones in a 2-1 overtime loss against the Florida Panthers at home on Monday.
He's averaging 2:14 on the penalty kill, a big reason he's averaging 19:34 per game, three minutes more than ever before and most among Detroit forwards. It has helped him at 5-on-5, keeping him in the flow of the game and in the right mindset. Know where everyone is. Get in lanes. Don't cheat.
At center, he has used his speed to come back deep, anticipate where the puck is going and outnumber the opposition to get it back.
Detroit is generating 54.4 percent of the shot attempts when he is on the ice at 5-on-5, the highest percentage of his NHL career and highest on the Red Wings.
"Confidence is the biggest thing in this league," Larkin said. "I think this year I'm a lot more confident with the puck. I don't have any fear when I have the puck of what's going to happen or anything.
"I feel like I am just playing hockey, making plays, skating, playing defense, penalty killing. I'm having a lot of fun this year, and I kind of got away from that last year."
This is an important subplot for the Red Wings. They have been up and down -- 4-1-0 in their first five games, 0-5-1 in their next six, 6-2-1 in their next nine, and 1-5-4 in their past 10. They have lost as badly as 10-1 on the road against the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 2, but often they have played well and haven't gotten results. Blashill has been preaching that they must trust the process.
Whether or not they make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they must be able to look back on this season and say it helped develop their young players. Larkin must keep growing for his own sake, but he also can be an example for others.
Larkin takes coaching, even when he doesn't like it. He goes through the process and is better for it.
"When the coach is constantly on you about something, it's going to eat away at your confidence and you're never going to play your best," Blashill said. "It's just the reality of it. But there are times when that's needed in order to correct long-term issues, and for him to become the best long-term player he could be, I felt like, and really he felt like, he needed to learn how to be that complete, complete player.
"There were certainly moments [of friction]. But the one thing I think that Dylan and I have a real understanding of each other is this: I know he wants to be great. There's not one second that I don't think anything he says isn't because he wants to be great as a person. He wants the team to win bad. There's no selfishness to him.
"We don't have to agree on everything, but he knows the place I'm coming from, and that's to try to help him become an elite player in this league."
