Red Wings star Dylan Larkin recently had a unique practice experience. Larkin and his teammates skated on an ice rink set up at the home of the Ohio State football team.

Despite losing a heated matchup at The Horseshoe, Detroit Red Wings star Dylan Larkin issued a very emotional statement about the 5-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

With the deadline just days away, that’s what we’re going to look at using the Stanley Cup Checklist. The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn created the Cup Checklist in 2020 to find common elements essential to a team’s success between a decade of champions.

With just over 20 games remaining on most NHL schedules, the pretenders are fading, and the teams genuinely worthy of a ticket to Lord Stanley’s dance are rising, including the Detroit Red Wings. Even if coach Todd McLellan had to call out captain Dylan Larkin.

In eight games in February, Larkin has two goals, three assists and is a minus-6. He is minus-5 in four games since returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off, where he played for the United States team that finished second, losing to Canada 3-2 in overtime in the championship game eight days ago.

The Dylan Larkin importance to the Detroit team is such that when he’s not on top of his game the Red Wings are not on top of theirs. “I can’t beat around the bush — he was missing,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said after the Columbus Blue Jackets downed Detroit 5-2 in the first game of their ultra-important home-and-home series.