Notes: Wings teammates the most impressed with Larkin's development

MONTREAL -- Dylan Larkin has impressed many people around the league since he joined the Detroit Red Wings as a 19-year-old with one year of college hockey at Michigan under his belt.
But some of the people who are the most impressed by Larkin are the ones who play with him and see his admirable work ethic behind the scenes.

"Larkin, I have nothing but good things to say about that kid," veteran defenseman Jonathan Ericsson said Sunday. "He wants to become a great player and he's going to do what it takes to become it. He already is a very good player. He wants to be better defensively, he wants to be better offensively, he wants to be a better teammate, he wants to make the team better, not just himself. He's a young kid.
"Two years ago I wouldn't have thought that he would develop as much as a person as he has, on and off the ice. I say to myself or someone else, I would really want to have Larkin on my team. I think he's been really consistent and he goes hard every single night. He wants to win for his team."
Larkin just turned 21 this past summer yet he has already played in 235 career NHL games.
After playing him on captain Henrik Zetterberg's wing his first year, Wings coach Jeff Blashill shifted Larkin back to his natural center position in the latter part of last season and kept him there this season.
"Two things we've really asked Larks to do is become a great two-way center and be great from the defensive side of the puck," Blashill said. "That's what all the best centers in the league are that are on winning teams. I think he's done a good job of that through the course of the season. The other thing we talked to Larks about coming this year was being more of a give-and-go player. Using his speed, but change his speed, be a little more give-and-go and obviously with the assists he has this year, I think it shows he's done a good job of that."
Larkin leads the Wings this season with 42 assists, which is more than the 37 he had in the two previous seasons combined.
"I think on the ice, I'd probably say my 200-foot game, really just becoming a center at this level, being able to accept the challenge of a match-up, whether you're on the road or at home, playing against the other team's top couple lines, feeling that one-on-one battle," Larkin said. "I feel like I've learned a ton this year but I feel comfortable in that challenge. Off the ice, it's hard. I've matured a lot. I've become an adult."
In his rookie season in 2015-16, Larkin led the team with 23 goals. He had 17 last season and has 12 this year. But that is somewhat by design.
"My end of the year meetings I talked to both Blash and Kenny Holland about my playmaking ability," Larkin said. "It was like a bit of a challenge. I don't know how many assists I had last year (15), but it wasn't very many. They challenged me to be a better teammate, be a better linemate. I came into this year and I really feel like playing center has helped me distribute pucks more and I think the first part of the season I wasn't looking to shoot as much as I should have been. Even though my shots are still up, I feel like when I was in the prime scoring areas I wasn't looking to score, I was looking to find a guy coming in late and make the extra play. I think it was working. I'm glad I did but it does feel good to score a couple goals here."
Larkin had two goals against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 20 and then scored again in Toronto this past Saturday.
"I think the toughest part for him was that he probably was too good from the beginning," Zetterberg said. "He came in and everything went well for him, he scored a lot of goals, lot of points. Then it got a little tougher for him. But I think you learn a lot from that. I think last year was a really important year for him. He showed us this year, the bounce-back year he has and how he plays the game a little bit differently. He moved over as a center so with that comes more responsibilities. He's doing it really well. He is a really good two-way player but he hasn't really played that before. He'd always been a winger when he came up here and it's different to play in college or junior leagues but he's been taking the step this year that you have to do.
"Everyone knows he will be here for a long, long time and do a lot of good things for us."
Last season at age 36, Zetterberg led forwards in ice time at 19:43 while Larkin was at 16:09.
Zetterberg has always said he didn't intend to hand over his minutes, the younger players would have to earn them.
This season Larkin has done that, averaging 19:49 per game to Zetterberg's 19:39.
Larkin doesn't intend to stagnate or plateau this summer. He will work as hard as always to become an even better player for next season.
"I think I got to keep escalating, keep moving in the right direction," Larkin said. "I'd like for myself to be able to go out in games and say I really helped our team win that game and I was a big reason why, and being the best player on the ice, dominating. Eventually, I'd like to be like Nathan MacKinnon this year. You go into Colorado and it's the Nathan MacKinnon Show and he's flying around, making plays. I'd like to get at that."
BAD MEMORIES: The Wings won't soon forget the last game they played in Montreal - although they'd like to. On Dec. 2, the Canadiens gave the Wings a 10-1 shellacking at Bell Centre.
"It was a tough night, brutal night, actually," Blashill said. "I went to my kid's hockey game the next day and as we were walking in, my son said to me, 'Dad, it's going to be tough day for you here in the rink.' It was a tough day for sure. That's the reality of it. But I'm a big believer in being solution-based and you put those kinds of things behind you and you learn from it and move on.
"The next day is a new day. That's the reality of life. I don't think success is about getting knocked down, I think it's about getting back up and that probably goes to our team of continuously getting back up. Right now it's been a hard stretch but I think we've done a good job and we're going to have to do a good job of it again here tonight."
Paul Byron had three of his 18 goals in that game alone.
"It was hard to get that game out of your mind," Larkin said. "It's something that how many times you come back into an arena you think about the previous game in a long season and how many things happen but that game is in our minds today. Even though two teams that are not in the playoff race.
"They embarrassed us last time we were here. We need to come out and have some pride and play for each other, play for the winged wheel and our fanbase. I know a lot of guys have a lot of pride in here and I expect us to come out and play real hard."
Zetterberg said he believes the team learned something from that debacle.
"We know what happened last time and we know that we have to come out and play better," Zetterberg said. "You don't want to go through that again. For us, this has always been a great building to play in. The fans are great, the people in the stands from the beginning of the warmup and the traditions they have here. We all look forward to come here and play and we want to play well."
X IN LINEUP: It has been a challenging year for the Wings as a team and a challenging year for defenseman Xavier Ouellet personally.
Ouellet has played in just 42 games this season, ending up as a healthy scratch more often than not.
But Ouellet will play in front of friends and family against the Canadiens.
"I had a little more last time," Ouellet said. "Last time I had almost 50 people. I got a couple friends, couple cousins, family that are coming tonight. They already bought their tickets at the beginning of the season. It's fun to be in the lineup, fun to be able to play."
Ouellet has five assists and is minus-3 this season after recording three goals, nine assists and plus-2 in 66 games last season.
"Every time I play I need to prove myself, I need to show what I can do, I need to play good," Ouellet said. "I need to get back my timing and get back all this game energy and hopefully I can go on a roll and play a couple games."
Blashill does not fault Ouellet's effort.
"X has worked hard at his game," Blashill said. "He worked his tail off last summer. He stayed in Detroit and worked extremely hard at improving his skating. That would be the one area he needs to keep improving and it's not easy as you get older. It's something when you're a kid, improvements come a lot quicker. It's going to be a matter for him of continuing the footwork and finding ways to be as efficient a skater as he can be to make him real effective.
"The other thing that happens in any league, but certainly in this league, when you're not playing lots it's hard to stay in rhythm, so he gets thrown in the other night, that's a hard thing. Hopefully having played two games ago and then playing today makes it a little bit easier and he has a better game today."
Ouellet played 9:13 against the Washington Capitals two games ago after sitting the previous nine games.
COREAU VS PRICE: Goaltender Jared Coreau will get his second career start against the Canadiens and first at Bell Centre.
"I'm excited to play in this building," Coreau said. "I know it's a great atmosphere. I'm excited for the U2 song to come on when we skate out. Last year I got sent down I think a week before I got to play here, so I was disappointed. I wanted to see it. I heard the hotel was nice and that didn't disappoint. I'm just excited to be here."
Last year, Coreau shut out the Canadiens, 1-0, on Jan. 16, 2017, at Joe Louis Arena, with Thomas Vanek netting the winning goal.
"We won 1-0 but I think overall only giving up 18 shots as a team, we played a really well-rounded game," Coreau said. "Their team, I don't think they're going to give up a lot. They're not going to get a whole lot, either. I think it could come down to maybe just keeping the mistakes to a bare minimum."
Carey Price starts for Montreal and Coreau has long admired the veteran goaltender.
"Something that really stood out to me was last year, my first call up, I hadn't played an NHL game yet and he tapped me on the pads and just said, 'Congrats on the call-up,'" Coreau said. "I'd never spoken to him before and he went out of his way to do that and he was playing that game as well. It just shows you can be the best goalie in the world but still take time for the little guys and say congrats. It was really nice and something that stood out to me. I'm excited to play against him again."