Red Wings ‘pretty invested’ in Lions’ run to NFC Championship Game

DETROIT -- A fan tossed an octopus onto the ice at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday. Traditionally, that’s a symbol of the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But this time, it seemed to have a double meaning.

The Red Wings have a chance to end their seven-season playoff drought. With a 5-2 win Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights, the defending Stanley Cup champions, they’re on a 9-2-1 run and hold the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

At the same time, the Detroit Lions have a shot to go to the Super Bowl for the first time. They play the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday evening.

“I mean, there’s no doubt our recent play and success has brought some energy to this building,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “You saw a little bit last year when we had some of these pushes. But I think with where the Lions are at, it’s a different energy. This is, like, a ‘wow’ energy, so this is really cool. This is fun.”

The Red Wings have been feeding off the Lions’ energy all season, especially their four players from the Detroit area: defenseman Jeff Petry and forwards Andrew Copp, Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin.

Larkin had two goals and Copp also scored against the Golden Knights on a night when the Red Wings leaned into the Lions buzz.

Standing next to the Lions mascot, Roary, former Lions fullback Cory Schlesinger wore a Red Wings jersey, sounded the horn before the opening face-off and yelled, “Let’s go Red Wings! Let’s go Lions!”

The Red Wings did several Lions-related bits on the scoreboard screens. The organist played the Lions fight song, “Gridiron Heroes,” and the fans sang along. Multiple times, the fans chanted the name of Lions quarterback Jared Goff.

“It’s inspiring for us to see how much the city gets behind its sports teams when they’ve earned it, and that’s what the Lions have done,” Larkin said.

If you aren’t from Detroit, you’ve got to understand the history here.

The Lions won their first NFL title in 1935. The Red Wings won the Cup for the first time in 1936, then won it again in 1937 and 1943. Each team won multiple championships in the 1950s -- the Red Wings in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955, the Lions in 1952, 1953 and 1957.

A little trivia: When the Lions clinched their last title, the opposing quarterback was Tommy O’Connell of the Cleveland Browns. His son Mike would play 13 seasons as an NHL defenseman, finishing his career with the Red Wings in 1986-90.

The Red Wings returned to glory by winning the Cup in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008.

The Lions have, well, taken far longer to restore the roar. Until they won their first two playoff games this season, they had won one playoff game since 1957. They are the only NFL team that has played every season throughout the Super Bowl era (since the 1966 season) without a Super Bowl appearance.

“Growing up for me here, the Wings were always in the playoffs, always having a chance to win the Stanley Cup,” DeBrincat said. “You’d see the whole city buzzing for that, so it’s nice the Lions are in that position now, and obviously we hope to get to that position too. It’s definitely a cool experience for fans, players, everyone involved.”

Lalonde is a Buffalo Bills fan from Brasher Falls in upstate New York, but he was invited to Lions training camp before this season. He met Lions coach Dan Campbell and got a bro hug from Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who grew up in the Detroit area and played at the University of Michigan. 

Now he has a Hutchinson jersey and hopes to have Campbell speak to the Red Wings after the Lions season.

“I think what’s been most impressive about this is how authentic the group is, how real it is, the energy of it,” Lalonde said. “How can you not like the group, the passion, the swagger? It’s just been really cool to watch.”

Copp is a huge football fan. He grew up near the University of Michigan, his family parking cars for football games at Michigan Stadium. He was a quarterback in high school at Ann Arbor Skyline who passed for 557 yards and seven touchdowns in one game Sept. 23, 2011, state records at the time.

He invited his Red Wings teammates to his house to watch the Lions season opener, a 21-20 win at the Kansas City Chiefs, the defending Super Bowl champions, on Sept. 7. It was important for team bonding ahead of training camp.

“That was the first time a lot of the new guys had met some of the guys,” Copp said.

Copp watched Michigan, his alma mater, defeat Washington 34-13 at NRG Stadium in Houston on Jan. 8 to win its first college football national title since 1997. Imagine if the Lions make the Super Bowl too.

During a 5-3 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Little Caesars Arena on Jan. 13, the Red Wings asked a fan in a Lions jersey if he could name more Lions players than Copp could in 15 seconds in a bit called “Face-off Challenge.” The fan named nine. Copp rattled off 17.

Copp loves Campbell’s grit and aggressiveness.

“I feel like he’s speaking the city’s language a little bit, and yeah, it’s made watching games more fun,” Copp said. “I’m more emotionally invested.”

Petry is the son of Dan Petry, who pitched for the Detroit Tigers when they won the 1984 World Series. The family has had Lions season tickets since before the team moved from the Pontiac Silverdome to Ford Field in 2002.

This is Petry’s first season with the Red Wings after 13 seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins. When he had a Sunday off Nov. 19, he got to go to a Lions game for the first time since he was in college at Michigan State from 2007-10. The Lions defeated the Chicago Bears 31-26.

“Growing up here, I obviously saw a number of Red Wings teams in the playoffs and having success, winning Stanley Cups,” Petry said. “I got to experience what the city’s like rallying around a team. The Lions have brought that back. Hopefully we’re able to continue taking care of business and playing the right way and find our own success.”

DeBrincat wasn’t a big football fan growing up. But this is a guy who wore a Detroit Pistons hat when he spoke to the media after joining the Red Wings on July 9, and he’s into the Lions now.

When the Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 in the Divisional Playoff at Ford Field on last Sunday, Red Wings players were watching the game at Little Caesars Arena before their 2-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning later that night. Lalonde said he was walking past when the Lions converted a third down. DeBrincat pumped his fist.

“Pretty invested,” DeBrincat said. “I feel a lot of the guys are pretty invested right now, especially come playoff time. It’s just fun to watch. You rally around the city of Detroit. Obviously, this doesn’t happen very often for us, so it’s pretty cool.”

Larkin played for the Red Wings in the playoffs as a 19-year-old rookie in 2015-16, when they lost to the Lightning in five games in the Eastern Conference First Round. The 27-year-old captain is the only current member of the Red Wings to play for them in the playoffs.

Like Copp, he just watched Michigan, his alma mater, win the college football national title, and he’s following the Lions closely.

“I’m a Lions fan,” Larkin said. “It’s been tough, a lot of hard years, but to see the team doing so well and how the city has responded, it’s really cool. I’ve always said that playing for the Red Wings is awesome, and then you get to the playoffs, and it’s a whole other level. You’re kind of seeing that with the Lions.”

The Red Wings have Sunday off. They will gather as a team to watch the Lions together.