Dylan Larkin gets aggressive, heats up for Red Wings
Philadelphia – One positive in the Detroit Red Wings’ loss Wednesday in Philadelphia?
Another sign that Dylan Larkin is getting hot offensively.
Larkin scored the Red Wings’ opening goal in what would eventually be another defeat in the city of Philadelphia, 4-3 in overtime.
It was Larkin’s fourth goal, his second in two games, and Larkin was much more aggressive offensively and looking to create scoring opportunities.
“Larks has played good hockey lately,” said coach Jeff Blashill, who has Larkin back playing on a wing after beginning the season at center. “He’s getting chances, he’s getting shots, his impact on the games have been good overall.
“I’m happy with where his game is at.”
On his goal against the Flyers, Larkin gathered the puck near the right circle and carried it to the high slot, where he shot the puck that glanced off the skate of Philadelphia forward Jakub Voracek and into the net.
Larkin almost gave the Red Wings a 3-0 lead – Andreas Athanasiou made it 2-0 just 16 seconds after Larkin scored – but his shot bounced off the crossbar.
Larkin’s five shots led the Red Wings, who were outshot 40-23 in the game.
“I tried to focus on being strong on the puck in the offensive zone and being able to get second and third opportunities in their zone, keeping the play alive and keeping the cycle going,” Larkin said. “Frans (Nielsen), myself and Gus (Nyquist, Larkin’s linemates) did a good job of that.
“As a team we got away from it in the second (period). I don’t think we got too comfortable, but we just got away from the way we were playing. We should be able to dictate how the game goes by the players on our team.”
Not good enough
Athanasiou scored a nice goal himself, and was among the most active Red Wings in the first period. But Athanasiou’s performance as the game progressed didn’t impress Blashill.
“I didn’t like the second part of the second period; he has to make sure he plays complete for the whole time,” Blashill said. “He’s got to make sure he is on it like the first part (of the game). He was playing real well and for whatever reason he came off it.”
Wings fall in OT, Philly losing skid hits 12
Blashill has often said that Athanasiou needs to win more puck battles, which will lead to other positive developments in Athanasiou’s overall game.
Athanasiou wasn’t as hard to play against the latter half of the game.
“He wasn’t winning as many battles as he normally wins when he needs to,” Blashill said. “He wasn’t as engaged skating-wise, he wasn’t on the puck, and those are things that will be addressed internally.”
Lost opportunity
The Wings are back at it Friday against Winnipeg, but Wednesday’s loss will be tough to forget.
The Flyers tied the game with a controversial goal at 18 minutes, 56 seconds, then defeated the Red Wings in overtime when Voracek scored off a 2-on-1 rush at 1:41.
So the Red Wings have now lost 12 consecutive games (0-11-1) in Philadelphia dating back to 1997.
“It gets brought up all the time so it’s hard to forget about it,” said captain Henrik Zetterberg of the losing streak in Philadelphia. “But I don’t think we let it affect the way we play out there. We played good enough to win.
“You won’t be perfect for 60 minutes but I thought we had good enough stuff to win.”
Jets at Red Wings
Faceoff: Friday, 7:30 p.m., Joe Louis Arena, Detroit
TV / radio: Fox Sports Detroit / 97.1 FM
Notable: The Jets are in the middle of a three-games in four-day road trip. … D Jacob Trouba (Rochester) is holding out and wants to be traded. … RW Patrik Laine is among the league’s best rookies.
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter @tkulfan