As the Red Wings prepare to square off against the Maple Leafs tonight, the leading point scorers for both teams are a captain and an alternate captain- Dylan Larkin and Auston Matthews respectively. So, how will these two stack up against each other this far into the season?
Dylan Larkin
Having played 480 career games, Dylan Larkin has been around the league a little bit longer than Auston Matthews. He became an alternate captain at the start of the 2018-19 season and was named Detroit Red Wings captain at the start of this 2021-22 season. Larkin has recorded 142 career goals and 201 assists behind the Winged Wheel with this season being his most fruitful one yet.
So far, Larkin has put up 26 goals and 28 assists in 47 games- a career-high pace for the young captain. He is 9th in the league regarding goals scored this season and 15th for points, which may be lower than Matthews but this has been a transformative season for Larkin’s game.
In the January 29th home matchup against the Maple Leafs, Dylan Larkin found the back of the net twice and also assisted on a goal from Vladislav Namestnikov. Although that game was an incredibly unfortunate 7-4 loss, Larkin was named the 2nd star of the game just behind Michael Bunting of Toronto.
Auston Matthews
Auston Matthews was drafted 1st overall in the 2016 NHL Draft and has since played 382 career games. Awarded the position of alternate captain at the start of the 2019-20 season, Matthews has scored 235 career goals and 180 assists as a Maple Leaf. This year, he was the captain of the Atlantic Division for the NHL All-Star game held in Las Vegas.
Matthews is currently leading the league in goals scored this season with a whopping 36- just passing Leon Draisaitl earlier this week. He is also 4th overall for points with 64 under his belt in just 48 games played. Matthews has yet to score against the Red Wings this season but has put up two assists which is not indicative of if he has played well in those games or not but rather shows that the Detroit defense has given him some issues which is a promising sign.
Takeaways
Watching two highly-skilled players that are nearly the same age but have very different games go up against each other is always fun to watch. This will be the 3rd matchup between the Wings and Leafs in the 2021-22 season and Detroit is hungry for a win.
The Wings enter this game fresh off of a loss to the Avalanche while the Leafs are still riding out a victory over the Wild, both teams ready to play their hardest game possible. Dylan Larkin is currently on an eight-game point streak while Auston Matthews’s point streak is only two-games long. With Larkin’s momentum and the home ice advantage, will the Wings be able to finally pull off a win against the highly ranked Maple Leafs?