What We Learned About Detroit From the Olympics

Lucas Raymond finished third in tournament scoring with 9 points in 5 games. The only two above him were McDavid and Celebrini, who had both extra games and each other’s help to do so. Lucas Raymond handily outperformed the rest of his Swedish teammates. The second-highest scoring Swede was Mika Zibanejad, who finished with 6.

Sweden has three “star” forwards. Lucas Raymond leads the NHL in points by a Swedish player with 60. Leo Carlsson sits at a point-per-game with a lot of room to grow at just 21 years old and William Nylander outpaces all Swedish players by a lot, being on 107 point pace. Carlsson stayed home after picking up an injury. Nylander and Raymond both prefer to play the right wing. In other words, Lucas Raymond dominated the Olympics playing alongside good-not-great players.

Not to beat the dead horse, but Sweden’s coach didn’t do the team any favours. I covered Sweden’s preliminary round for Inside the Rink, and you can read my thoughts about benching Forsberg and Bratt. You can also read my thoughts about denying Markstrom the crease as long as he did. But my main gripe with Sam Hallam is that I feel like he didn’t let Raymond get any run with the team’s biggest threats. No Kempe, no Forsberg, no Nylander, and benching Pettersson meant that in the biggest game of the tournament for the Swedes, they needed Raymond to carry two relatively average players to a win.

And the thing is, he almost did. After seeing Mika Zibanejad on a cross-ice feed, Sweden tied the game against the Swedes after Raymond was ripping shots all night. Unfortunately, Landeskog got danced by Quinn Hughes, leading to the loss.

So what’s the point? Even with all that, poor coaching, average line mates, and some very real defensive responsibility, Lucas Raymond dominated. Back in Detroit, let’s take a look at who he’s playing alongside. He’s played alongside Dylan Larkin for practically the entire season as expected. Dylan Larkin is constantly prone to prolonged cold stretches. On his left wing, it’s been some rotating door of Emmitt Finnie, Marco Kasper, or some other name from the grab-bag of bottom six-ers this team has. Lucas Raymond doesn’t need a McDavid on his line to produce well; he just needs competent help on his line.

There’s also proof of concept in Detroit. I know I’m getting back on my soapbox, and if you’ve followed my writing for a while, I’m sure you’re used to this topic by now. When Larkin, Raymond, and DeBrincat are together, they’re all elite. The stupidly short sample size we got of about four games earlier this season went fantastically. They dominated all aspects of the game. In the short sample, they are fourth in the entire NHL in terms of xGoals% for forward lines.

I would love DeBrincat to be back on the top line, but as long as Patrick Kane remains as this team’s second line right-wing, that won’t happen. I’m willing to bet that Lucas Raymond could dominate any game as long as his left wing is half decent.

Getting Lucas Raymond a competent winger to help him take that last step will fix Detroit’s biggest roster issue: their lack of a true superstar. Raymond has shown he can do it; Yzerman just needs to get him the player to get him there.

Dylan Larkin is the Right Captain

Dylan Larkin has long had his leadership questioned. During the month of March, especially, Larkin has seen his fair share of criticism. How could any true captain let his team nosedive out of the playoff picture with such a huge losing streak? The Olympics made it clear that Larkin’s leadership wasn’t the problem.

You can try to read between the lines of this U.S.A. group. When the team walked onto the ice, it was Larkin stepping on second after goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, something that the team’s captain typically does. But again, it’s hard to speculate on an Olympic team’s locker room. So let’s go by what people are saying.

Dylan Larkin and Matthew Tkachuk were bonding over Olympic pin collecting. The Tkachuk brothers have long sung the praise of Dylan Larkin on their podcast, talking about how much he meant to the Four Nations locker room. Quinn Hughes talked about how Dylan Larkin was a mentor of sorts to him when he attended the University of Michigan.

It seems as though any interview that came out involved the praises of Dylan Larkin as a locker room leader.

Mo Seider Performed as Advertised

Can’t say I’m shocked. Mo Seider’s tournament was pretty ho-hum. Germany was an early exit, and Seider’s offensive and defensive numbers were about what was expected of him before the tournament.

Being Germany’s only NHL defenceman, we knew Moritz Seider was going to log huge minutes before the tournament even started. On the bright side, Seider held his own in his minutes pretty well, finishing the tournament as a plus 2. Unfortunately, the team’s total goal differential was 14 goals for to 17 goals against. Seider had to step off the ice at some point, and it was largely some pretty rough minutes for Germany.

Offensively, Seider’s 2 points in 5 games are a little bit underwhelming, but given his usage, it’s not exactly unexpected.

Mo Seider touched down in Milan as a defensive wall who was going to log difficult defensive minutes and by some miracle hold is own. Seider left the same way without picking up any injury. If you ask most Red Wings fans, that’s a pretty successful tournament for Seider.

More to Read:

Lucas Raymond is the Perfect Winger to Play Alongside

Dylan Larkin Has Been Hockey’s Most Impressive Forward

• Lucas Raymond is the Perfect Winger to Play Alongside
• NHL Post Game: Buffalo Sabres at Detroit Red Wings 11/15/2025
• Hot or Him: Over-Performances or Improved Players?
• Dylan Larkin Has Been Hockey’s Most Impressive Forward
• How Larkin, DeBrincat, and Raymond Are Changing the Game for Detroit