Notes: Larkin picking his spots when it comes to fighting

DETROIT -- Red Wings center Dylan Larkin knows that fighting is not the main ingredient in his game but he will do so when necessary - while taking care to pick his spots.
Against the New York Islanders Saturday night, Larkin took on Islanders forward Josh Bailey after Bailey took a run at Niklas Kronwall.

Bailey was responding to a clean hit that Kronwall put on Islanders captain Anders Lee.
"I don't want to fight all the time either, it's not my game," Larkin said. "But you know what, you got to do it sometimes. The hit on Kronner, I thought it was a pretty big slew foot. If it's a guy like Matt Martin doing it, I'll let some other guys handle it. Especially the guy it came from, I didn't like that at all. It wasn't much of a message from (Wings coach Jeff Blashill) but I don't think I'm going to be fighting a whole lot. I don't think there needs to be anything said."
Larkin is now in his fourth NHL season and Blashill said Larkin's willingness to be physical when necessary was an important part of his development.
"I think opponents have to know that you're going to stand up for yourself and your teammates," Blashill said. "I think that's a huge thing. Early in his career, I thought a number of teams took runs at him to try to test his toughness. I don't see that anymore and you don't see that anymore because they know he's tough. Not that he's going to make a career out of fighting, nor do we want him to. But the fact that they know that he's got toughness means he'll get enough space to create offense."
Blashill was a bit relieved that Larkin would not have considered taking on Martin, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound guy with 86 NHL regular-season fights under his belt to Larkin's three.
"If it was Matt Martin, I might have been yelling from the bench no," Blashill said. "Again, that's part of picking your spots. I would go back and say I think like any young player that's a skilled player, you better prove . . . well anybody in life, you better prove you can't get knocked around. Just like the bully on the playground. Sometimes you gotta stick up for yourself, or stick up for each other. If people think they can push us around, we're not going to have much success this year."
In addition to teams taking fewer liberties with Larkin, seeing a guy like him fight often does wonders for his teammates.
"It gets everybody fired up," known pugilist Luke Witkowski said. "Obviously he's one of our best players, so you don't want to see that on a nightly basis because you don't want him to get hurt. We need him on the ice as much as possible, but it gets us fired up."
DALEY RETURNS: Barring something unforeseen, veteran defenseman Trevor Daley will return to the lineup tonight after missing the last five games with a lower-body injury.
Daley was paired with rookie Dennis Cholowski in the morning skate.

Daley said after Saturday's morning skate that it was just an old injury that flared up and he has been feeling much better of late.
"He's a really good NHL player," Blashill said. "He's been a top-four defenseman on a two-time Stanley Cup-winning team in Pittsburgh. So you're inserting a good player back in the lineup. He brings an ability to get out of the zone, both with his skating and his management of the puck. He tends to make hard plays out of the zone. He doesn't over-complicate it. He's played against other teams' best since he's been here at different times. He's been a good defender, but he also helps your offense and puts other teams on their heels. Providing he gets through warmups and is going to play, he's another good NHL player that we can put back in."
In 21 games this season, Daley has one goal, four assists and is plus-2. Despite missing nine games, Daley is fourth on the team in blocked shots with 28.
"Having Dales back is huge," Larkin said. "Just more experience back there, someone who I think can really settle it down when things start going a little sideways, someone who's always ready to play. Just another veteran guy back there that always makes the right decision with the puck."
KINGS ARE QUICK-ER: The last time the Wings faced the Los Angeles Kings, Port Huron, Mich. native Jack Campbell was in goal and all-world goaltender Jonathan Quick was injured.
Now Quick is back after missing five games from Oct. 7-15 and 13 games from Oct. 28-Nov. 25 with lower-body injuries and Campbell is on injured reserve.
"Jonathan Quick has been without question one of the best goalies in the NHL for a long time," Blashill said. "Certainly one of the best American goalies. I've known him since he was playing prep school out east. He's a real good goalie, he's a real good piece for them. They're trying to claw their way back in the way we tried to claw our way back in. They've got real good players, so it'll be a real good challenge."
The Kings have struggled to score and Quick has struggled to regain his customary All-Star form, going 2-6-1 with a 3.23 goals-against average and .893 save percentage.
"He's a good goalie, he's been at times really, really impressive for them, so when you have a goaltender like that, you've got to fire pucks as much as you can, get bodies in front of his eyes so he can't see the puck and do whatever you can to get him off his game," Andreas Athanasiou said.
The Kings have long been known as a bigger team with a plenty of skilled players.
"They're a heavy team to play against," Larkin said. "We got to make sure we're on the puck and we're using our speed against them."
Captain Anze Kopitar leads the Kings with seven goals and 11 assists in 29 games. Defenseman Drew Doughty is right with Kopitar with two goals and a team-leading 15 assists in 30 games. Dustin Brown (8-7-15) and Jeff Carter (6-9-15) are two of the other main scoring threats.
The perception is the Wings should be able to use their team speed against the Kings but Blashill said that can be deceiving.
"I think we're a team that a lot of teams we play we can be faster than them," Blashill said. "I think this gets missed a little bit: it's about playing fast more than anything else. You can have team speed and not play fast, and then you're not fast. And you can average speed and play real fast, and you are fast. I learned that from (Kings interim head coach) Willie Desjardins as much as anybody else. We better play fast. If you don't play fast against this team, they will grind you down and you will get no scoring chances. We saw it in Joe Louis Arena, had 16 shots because we didn't play fast."