{"id":555709,"date":"2026-04-19T02:35:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555709\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T02:35:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:35:23","slug":"dylan-larkin-gets-brutally-honest-after-red-wings-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555709\/","title":{"rendered":"Dylan Larkin Gets Brutally Honest After Red Wings Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin<\/a>, the silence at the end of the season said everything.<\/p>\n

After another late-season collapse, the Red Wings will miss the playoffs for the 10th straight year, extending a drought that continues to frustrate both players and fans. And this one, Larkin admitted, hit harder than most.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been hard. Not great,\u201d Larkin said.<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s been very difficult ending the season. It\u2019s never a fun time when you miss the playoffs, especially in this fashion and being here again. Today\u2019s not a pleasant day around the rink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detroit looked like a playoff team deep into the season. At one point, they controlled their own path. Then came the slide.<\/p>\n

And now, another long offseason.<\/p>\n

\"DylanA decade of waiting<\/p>\n

Larkin has been at the center of it all.<\/p>\n

He has seen the rebuild. He has lived through the growing pains. And now, he is feeling the weight of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I\u2019ve been here 10 years,\u201d Larkin said. \u201cFor a lot of those years, you go into the season wanting to make the playoffs, but realistically that wasn\u2019t always the case. There were years where we understood the rebuild and what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

That perspective has shifted in recent seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last four or five years, with Mo and Lucas becoming star players, we\u2019ve been pushing toward the playoffs and it hasn\u2019t happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, his commitment has never wavered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I signed my 8-year deal, I knew we had work to do. I wanted to be here and help this team win the Stanley Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the pressure hit, so did the problems<\/p>\n

The Red Wings did not lack effort. They lacked execution when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it got tight, we got tight. That\u2019s really what happened,\u201d Larkin said.<\/p>\n

He pointed to a mental hurdle that showed up repeatedly down the stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did the right things. Guys worked hard, prepared the right way. But when the pressure ramped up, we tightened up as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n

That tension showed up early in games, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the issue was dipping your toe into games instead of jumping in,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to know going into a game that you\u2019re ready to go right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

As captain, Larkin did not shy away from his role in that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s on me as captain. I should\u2019ve been driving play earlier to set the tone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury at the worst possible time<\/p>\n

Larkin was not at full strength during the most critical stretch of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it bothered me. I wasn\u2019t able to move as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A hit the night before a key moment lingered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got hit the night before against Vegas, and that played a bigger role than people probably realized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the play that made things worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an awkward play. It was unfortunate, but also lucky it wasn\u2019t more serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing could not have been worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing was just unbelievable. You\u2019re thinking, \u2018Why now?\u2019 But injuries are part of sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offense that disappeared when it mattered<\/p>\n

Detroit had chances. They just could not finish them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had chances, we just weren\u2019t burying them,\u201d Larkin said. \u201cOr we\u2019d score and then give one up.\u201d<\/p>\n

That inconsistency proved costly.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo score, you\u2019ve got to go to the net, be hard, and get pucks through,\u201d he said. \u201cFive-on-five scoring is a big area of emphasis for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

A brutally honest self-assessment<\/p>\n

Larkin did not sugarcoat his own performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot good enough,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were positives, but overall, not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

He embraced a difficult role this season, often matching up against top players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hard job to both score and shut down top players, but I embraced that role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he knows results are what matter.<\/p>\n

Belief that makes it sting more<\/p>\n

What made this collapse different was belief.<\/p>\n

Real belief.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I believed it,\u201d Larkin said. \u201c65 games in, we put ourselves in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is what makes the ending harder to process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing to be sitting here today,\u201d he said. \u201cI believed we were going to make the playoffs yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

What comes next<\/p>\n

There is no quick fix. Larkin knows that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a team sport. There are 23 guys, and everyone plays a role,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to get the Detroit Red Wings back in the playoffs, not just me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only path forward is reflection and work.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou find the balance with an honest assessment. You reflect, then you go get better,\u201d Larkin said. \u201cYou build confidence through preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another offseason begins.<\/p>\n

Same goal. Same urgency.<\/p>\n

Different ending needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin, the silence at the end of the season said everything. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5101],"tags":[599,93,5137,595,5,4,3358,5138],"class_list":{"0":"post-555709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-red-wings","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-red-wings","10":"tag-detroitredwings","11":"tag-dylan-larkin","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-red-wings","15":"tag-redwings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116429045344584755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}