Cutthroat Todd McLellan calls out his captain Dylan Larkin after Wings’ loss

Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin came out flat in the 5-2 loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday and his head coach Todd McLellan had no issue calling him out to the media postgame.

“I can’t beat around the bush — he was missing,” said McLellan. “He’s a big boy, he can handle hearing that. He’s going to hear it from me.”

McLellan was quite cutthroat in the assessment of his captain, even dismissing the idea that Larkin could be gassed still from playing four games for Team USA during the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.

“I’d like to think that the 4 Nations is so far past us already,” McLellan said. “We’ve had enough rest. I’m not using it as an excuse. I’m not even going to go there. We’re playing big games, we need our big players to play big games, and we’ll need more from not only him but some others.”

While it would be up to Larkin to determine how he feels after the intense 4 nations tournament, he did struggled against Columbus, recording a minus-three rating in the game, and only generating one shot on goal. He was 4-9 in the face-off circle.

McLellan added that Larkin had “just a lot of mishandles, unsure plays that he usually makes. ”

The head coach was not placing all of the blame on his captain, but certainly expects more from Larkin in coming games.
Detroit is back in action on Saturday against the Blue Jackets again, but this time in Columbus.