from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

Hope springs eternal in the human breast, the poet Alexander Pope wrote, and for a hockey player, hope peaks in autumn. Every player, every team approaches a new season with the goal of making the playoffs, because once there, hope is renewed. Anything can happen.

This is where Larkin’s heart is as the Wings head into the 2019-20 season.

“For me, it’d be really disappointing if we didn’t take a step forward this year,” he said. “With the pieces we’ve acquired and the feeling we have in the locker room, it’d be really disappointing if we’re sitting at the bottom of the league early April and not at least fighting for a playoff spot.

“We believe in here that we can have one of the playoff spots in our conference and we can shock people, and we’re going to do it by defending well and we’re going to rely on some guys coming in that are going to have big breakout seasons and it’s going to help our team and propel us forward.”

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