Even when he was little, Alex DeBrincat never dreamed this big. Even had you told him, he wouldn’t have believed it. This was the jersey he always wanted to wear. The first time he pulled it on in Detroit, with his name on the back and his family in the crowd, DeBrincat was drowned in cheers as he lifted the Red Wings to a 6-4 win.
As the first star of the game soaked in the moment during a TV interview on the Wings' bench, 'Don’t Stop Believin’' echoed in Little Caesars Arena. Born and raised in, well, Farmington Hills, DeBrincat was asked how the dream of playing for the Red Wings compares to the reality. “It’s so much better being here,” he smiled. Everybody wants a thrill.
Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings traded for DeBrincat this summer because they needed a goal-scorer. DeBrincat has three goals in two games with his new team, which is also his old team. He grew up wanting to be like Pavel Datsyuk. He and his brother hung news clippings of the Wings’ Stanley Cups on their basement walls. DeBrincat’s mom said Saturday night that he started fantasizing about this moment at the age of five: “He had Red Wings jerseys, Red Wings everything.”
“So this is really unbelievable,” she said.
Those were different days in Hockeytown. DeBrincat was raised on the Red Wings’ 25-year playoff streak. They won four Cups in the first 11 years of his life. They had stars splattered across the ice like octopi. DeBrincat watched them wear out the goal horn at Joe Louis Arena, perhaps literally: the Wings introduced a new one when they moved to LCA. The old horn is back in service this season, and DeBrincat plans to put it to work.
Shooters shoot. We knew that when DeBrincat came here with two 40-goal seasons on his resume. We witnessed it in Thursday's season opener. With Detroit trailing New Jersey by a goal in the third, the puck found DeBrincat in the slot and wound up in a blink in the back of the net. It called to mind exactly what Yzerman said this summer, that “there just aren’t a lot of guys around the league that can get it on their stick and any time they shoot it, it has a chance of going in.”
“We categorize Alex in that mold: a sniper. One shot can change a game,” Yzerman said.
The Red Wings were trailing the Lightning 2-1 in the first period Saturday night when DeBrincat jumped on a loose puck in the offensive zone, curled toward the blue line and flung a shot on goal. It deflected off a stick, kicked off the ice and bounced over the shoulder of goalie Jonas Johansson. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
They were leading 4-3 in the third when Dylan Larkin won a puck in the defensive zone, burst up ice and broke in on Johansson with DeBrincat on his left. Larkin slid him a pass and DeBrincat, who had thrust it into overdrive to join Larkin on the rush, buried it for the eventual game-winning goal. This, said Derek Lalonde, is what DeBrincat adds to the Red Wings, “a good stick, (the ability to) finish, some confidence.”
“At 4-3, it’s a tight game, that fifth goal is huge. That’s a true finish. You could see he got a little fortunate (on the first goal), but he’s getting pucks to the net … Having that shoot-first mentality, I think that bodes well for him and for our group through two games so far," said Lalonde.
DeBrincat and Larkin used to play youth hockey at The Joe. In their first game as teammates in Detroit, they electrified Little Caesars Arena. The fans roared and waved red towels in the air as the Wings dispatched a division rival that’s spent the better part of a decade pushing them around. The horn blared like DeBrincat remembers. Larkin, third star of the game with two assists, said he hasn’t “heard that noise maybe ever in this building.”
“It’s the best building in the NHL when the fans are going like that. It’s going to be really special when there’s big hockey games, and tonight was a sneak peek of that,” Larkin said.
It was also a preview, the Red Wings hope, of a dynamic offensive duo. Playing with Lucas Raymond, DeBrincat and Larkin had their legs. Their line was all over the puck and produced 17 shots on goal, including a third goal from Raymond. There’s a lot of pressure on Larkin and DeBrincat this season to push each other higher and pull the Wings out of the morass of a seven-year playoff drought. They feel it. On Saturday, Larkin said, “We stopped thinking and we played.”
“We used our speed and skill and had a lot of looks,” he said. “We would both admit that in New Jersey and the preseason, we were just finding our way. But things were clicking tonight.”
DeBrincat’s parents almost couldn’t make sense of what they were watching. His dad said he “never thought it would happen,” his son “wearing the Wings’ sweater.” His mom called it “surreal.” Neither one could stop smiling. Neither could DeBrincat himself. Asked what his 10-year-old self would have said to the idea of scoring two goals in his home debut with the Detroit Red Wings, the 25-year-old laughed and said, “Yeah, I don’t think I would believe that.”
“But things just went right today. Like Larks was saying, our line held the puck and forechecked hard, so a lot of credit to them for finding the open space, and obviously back-door passes are pretty easy to put in. It’s nice when you have that speed up the middle, and hopefully we can just build on that,” said DeBrincat.
Larkin, 27, talks often about the responsibility he feels to restore the Red Wings to greatness, especially as captain. He puts a lot on his own shoulders. In DeBrincat, he has a teammate who understands the burden and can lighten the load. As the future beckons for the Wings, DeBrincat was lured home by the chance to recreate the past.
“It was easy to be a fan back then with all the success they had,” he said. “A lot of organizations don’t get the luxury of being that good for so long. My childhood was filled with a lot of winning, four Cups since I was born. To be able to wear that jersey and just be a part of this is a dream come true, and something that I didn’t necessarily ever think was going to happen. Couldn’t be more thrilled to be here.”
The streetlights illuminated the people, who spilled onto Woodward Avenue after a rollicking night in Hockeytown. Alex DeBrincat will hold onto this feeling.