Detroit Red Wings: Dylan Larkin Injured at Tuesday’s Practice

This isn’t the best news if you are a Detroit Red Wings fan.  Dylan Larkin remained down on the ice during practice for a bit of an extended amount of time after colliding with the boards trying to avoid a teammate.

This will just fuel the Darren Helm criticism for many Detroit Red Wings fans.  It was he who Dylan Larkin was trying to avoid during practice when he had an intimate date with the wall Tuesday at practice.  Larkin eventually skated off under his own power, but he immediately left the ice surface, heading to the Wings locker room accompanied by the training staff.

If there is one player, the Detroit Red Wings can’t afford to lose it’s ‘do it all’ Dylan Larkin.  He’s the teams’ top forward and player for that matter.  It’s officially Larkin’s team now with the departure of Niklas Kronwall. It will be Larkin who addresses the media after the embarrassing losses this season, not just the impressive wins.

In an article published by the Detroit News, Jeff Blashill weighs in on the potential injury;

"“I’m a big believer in let’s see what is going on and we’ll react from there,” Blashill said. “There’s no reason to try to think about what … he could be totally fine.“We don’t want any of our guys to get hurt, and certainly Dylan is a big part of our team. We’ll have to see as it goes. We’ve said this a lot, we have to make sure that all of our guys are going so that if things happen other guys can step in, so we’ll see.”"

Larkin is expected to take another step forward offensively this season riding the momentum of his career year statistically last season.  He was able to record 32 goals adding 41 assists totaling 73 points in just 76 games played.  For a player to record nearly a point a game on one of the worst teams in the league last year is quite impressive.

Larkin isn’t just the organization’s top center; he’s the first over the boards on the power-play and the penalty-kill if he hadn’t just finished a shift.  He’s not just a one-trick pony like many of the top scorers in the league.  He plays the game the same way the top centers of the Red Wings past.

Although he has yet to reach the talent level of Steve Yzerman (he likely never will), or Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk–he plays the game the same way.