TLDR: Detroit opens its season at Little Caesars Arena without its captain. Dylan Larkin is out with an upper-body injury, and the New York Rangers get a Red Wings team that's missing its best player.
The Red Wings open their season at home without captain Dylan Larkin, who missed all of camp. They're also missing Simon Edvinsson, an unsigned RFA, and 2 more defensemen. The Rangers bring a top 6 that Mike Sullivan kept together through camp. What decides it is whether Detroit's reshuffled lineup can hold up against a deeper forward group, and the line still has the depleted home team as a slight favorite.
+Rest of the forward group moves up into bigger roles
−Larkin out with upper-body injury, missed all preseason
−Edvinsson unsigned, training in Sweden
−Bernard-Docker on IR, Englund on non-roster list
Head coach Todd McLellan said Thursday that Larkin will miss both Friday against the Rangers and Sunday against the Jets. Larkin hurt himself in off-ice training just before camp opened and has not played a preseason game. His earliest return is Ottawa on October 6 or Seattle on October 9. Detroit's top-line center has been in street clothes for all of camp, so whoever replaces him has had about 3 weeks of reps and none of them at full NHL speed.
Larkin isn't the only problem. Jacob Bernard-Docker is on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, Andreas Englund and Carter Bear are on the injured non-roster list, and Chase Stillman joined them Monday. Simon Edvinsson is still an unsigned restricted free agent and has gone back to Sweden to train, so the blue line is short 2 regulars. Even so, Detroit is a short home favorite, and the market is giving home ice a lot of credit for a team this thin.
New York at least showed up to camp with a plan. Mike Sullivan put Gabe Perreault, Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière together from day 1, building on what that line did late last season, with J.T. Miller centering the second group. "We started there for a reason," Sullivan said of the combinations. Camp lines aren't game lines, but this group has had weeks together, and Detroit is still figuring out who plays where.
The Rangers' blue line in camp ran Vladislav Gavrikov with Adam Fox, then Marcus Pettersson with Sean Durzi. That's 2 experienced pairs, and they'll be facing a Detroit forward group missing its best two-way center. Larkin is the guy who takes the hard faceoffs and kills penalties. Without him, everyone below him moves up a spot, and an opening night against a deep top 6 shows the gap quickly.
For Detroit it's a home opener, a full building and a lot of new faces in big minutes. For New York it's a road game against a short-handed opponent. Puck drop is 6:30 PM ET.
New York Rangers at Detroit Red Wings — Larkin sits as the Red Wings open the season against the Rangers | Polymarket Odds · Barstool Bush
