DETROIT -- Dylan Larkin played for the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night for the first time since asking for a trade and scored 13 minutes into his return. Larkin was cheered by the same crowd that booed him when he touched the puck on his first shift, joining teammates Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond on a forward line in his team's 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators.
After the team's morning skate, Detroit coach Todd McLellan told reporters Larkin was on track to play, and that if so, "we expect his best, every shift." Eventually cleared by doctors earlier in the day, he was activated off injured reserve just before taking the ice for pregame warmups.
His first period was active. Larkin, 30, was slow to get back defensively, and Ottawa's Tim Stutzle scored off the rush on his first shift. But he also gave the Red Wings the lead in that frame, and the polar opposite reactions were a fitting latest chapter in one of the most bizarre ongoing stories in hockey.
"Without him tonight, I don't know if we win," McLellan said in his postgame media availability.
Larkin remains in limbo several months after his trade request became public, and Detroit's longtime general manager, Steve Yzerman, was abruptly moved out of that role in mid-July. Larkin was stripped of the captaincy, reported to training camp despite being injured, missed the start of the season because of injury and received a frosty reaction from home fans during introductions prior to their first game last week.
"It was a lot of emotions. But I think I'm just happy to be a hockey player today and go out and try to help the team win," Larkin said on the Detroit SportsNet postgame show. "We've got a good group of guys in there that battle hard, and we needed this win today. That was most important."
Larkin is a Michigan native who has played his entire NHL career with Detroit, which last made the playoffs in his rookie season a decade ago. That is the longest active drought of any of the league's 32 teams.
Fans at the home opener taped over Larkin's name with such things as "Loser," "Traitor" and "Leavin" and at times chanted, "Sell the team."
Tuesday was a different story. He added an assist on a night when he took 26 shifts, covering 20:41 time on ice.
"We kind of showed what we can be as a team," Larkin said.
Larkin initially last spring gave the Red Wings only three destinations he'd accept a trade to -- the Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights -- before reportedly adding more possibilities in recent weeks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.