After an excellent first half of the 2025-26 NHL season, the Detroit Red Wings are fading, having lost nine of their last 14 games dating back to Jan. 22. That has their playoff hopes decreasing rapidly, and losing captain Dylan Larkin and forward Andrew Copp will only make things more difficult down the stretch.
Larkin and Copp will each be out at least two weeks with lower-body injuries, head coach Todd McLellan said on Thursday.
“Two weeks is still two weeks,” Todd McLellan said following the team's morning skate ahead of a critical game against the Lightning in Tampa Bay on Thursday night, per NHL.com. “They're both very good players. We'd like to have them in the lineup.”
Larkin is one of Detroit's most important players; the 29-year-old is third in team scoring with 55 points in 63 games this season. Copp, 31, has chipped in 37 points in 65 games of his own.
Larkin was injured in the third period of a 3-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on March 6 after suffering an awkward fall. Copp was injured on Tuesday, also against the Panthers, after getting tangled up with Florida forward Tomas Nosek.
The absences of the two veterans leave the Red Wings chalk thin down the middle. JT Compher is expected to center the top line alongside Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane, while Marco Kasper, Michael Rasmussen and Sheldon Dries are the other center options.
“If all goes well with recovery, we'll hopefully have them back and in that time frame, they don't lose a lot of conditioning or timing,” McLellan continued. “We're hoping the two-week time frame is what it turns out to be.”
The Wings can't really afford to lose the two key forwards for any length of time. In an elite Atlantic Division, Detroit has fallen to fourth place, with the Buffalo Sabres, Lightning and Montreal Canadiens all ahead.
Currently, the squad is occupying the top wildcard berth in the Eastern Conference, but the Boston Bruins are just a point back, and the surging Columbus Blue Jackets are three behind. The Wings are looking to break a playoff drought that dates back to 2016-17.
