Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin’s absence is concerning

The Detroit Red Wings have a peculiar situation going on right now with their captain, Dylan Larkin. The hometown hero for the Red Wings has been absent from the team due to personal reasons.

Larkin missed the Detroit Red Wings’ recent shutout loss to the Montreal Canadiens and did not practice on Wednesday. Coach Jeff Blashill noted that Larkin missed practice but did not have any sort of update on Wednesday in regards to the team’s captain.

It’s certainly concerning to be missing out on Larkin’s presence. Especially with question marks and no real answers as to what is going on, it sucks not to have Larkin suiting up for the Red Wings.

While I’m not going to sit here and speculate left and right what the personal reasons could be, his absence is detrimental to the Red Wings in more ways than it may appear initially. He’s the captain, the leader, and someone that many of the guys look to on this Red Wings roster.

Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin’s absence is worrisome.

What sticks out the most upon first glance is that he has not played or practiced, and the Red Wings are unable to offer many updates. Whatever is going on is undoubtedly serious. Hopefully, all is well with Larkin, and he can get things worked out to get back on the ice sooner than later.

The Red Wings look to Larkin as their captain and a source of energy; it’s pretty clear. This team’s younger members have shown that Larkin is someone who gets them going and has an intangible impact on the team’s performance.

As for his tangible performance, Larkin has played eight games so far this season, where he has three goals and five assists for eight total points on the season. He’s performed at the point-per-game clip and has been a part of the Red Wings offense that has been able to find the back of the net this season, a novel concept in prior years.

Without Larkin being in the lineup, some of the team’s other veterans and leaders are going to have to step up. This means people like Tyler Bertuzzi (when not in Canada) are going to have to step up into that leadership role.

The organization bestowed some leadership to Danny DeKeyser and Marc Staal as well. Veterans who have been around the league and around this team especially can fill some of the voids left from Larkin’s absence.

There is no timetable to see Larkin back on the ice. It could be another day; it could be a week; it could be a month. With the lack of clarity, there certainly has to be some concern. Hopefully, it’s not long before Larkin returns, but there’s a void left with him being away from the team, that’s for sure.