Simon Edvinsson snuck past a national camera crew interviewing Dylan Larkin in the hallway outside the Red Wings' dressing room after their 3-1 win over the Sabres on Sunday. Wearing slides, shorts and a team hoodie, it looked he had hardly broken a sweat. He's 6'6 with a mop of blonde hair, but Edvinsson slipped by the cameras and several fans watching Larkin's interview from the other side of the glass in the Players Club in Little Caesars Arena the same way he has arrived in the NHL.
"I don’t even notice him," said goalie Alex Lyon, who sees everything from his crease. "I think he has just fit in so seamlessly and it’s a huge credit to him. He makes it look easy and he makes the game look simple, but it’s not easy. It’s a difficult thing, off the ice as well as on the ice, to come into the locker room and be confident, and the way he carries himself and the confidence that he has is impressive.
"He’s got a lot more ahead of him, but he’s going to be a great player for a long time."
Lyon was one of the three stars of the Wings' biggest win of the season, with 37 saves and 17 in the third. The other two were Larkin and Lucas Raymond, both of whom scored goals in Detroit's first-period flurry, the latter of whom just keeps getting better. A few minutes after Larkin's interview, Raymond sat next to Lyon at the dais in the media room and raved about Moritz Seider, who had eaten 10 pucks and more than 27 minutes of ice time and had bags of ice on his body behind the scenes to prove it.
"I feel like he does that every game almost," said Raymond. "He’s a big boy, he’s a huge part of our team and just sacrificing his body and throwing it on the line for the guys, that means a ton and it sends the right signals to all of us as well. The way he plays, he gives us a good chance every night."
For a team that considers itself green, the Red Wings quietly have one of the more experienced bluelines in the NHL. The quartet of Jeff Petry, Ben Chiarot, Olli Maatta and Shayne Gostisbehere have 46 NHL seasons between them. But as the Wings enter their most important week of hockey in eight years, they are leaning heavily on their two youngest defenseman: the 21-year-old Edvinsson and the 23-year-old Seider.
It's games like Sunday, when Seider and Edvinsson helped smother a highly-talented offensive team, that restore faith in where the Red Wings might be going. In the moment, that means a potentially long-awaited return to the playoffs. Detroit holds a one-point lead over three teams in the race for the final wild card spot in the East with five games to go, the next two of the massive variety against the Caps and Penguins. In the future, that means legitimate contention. Seider and Edvinsson are two of the non-negotiables in Steve Yzerman's vision. They must be great for the Wings to be anything better than good.
"Excellent," Derek Lalonde said of Seider's performance on Sunday, which has been true of most of his first three NHL seasons. "He’s willing. He's physical. No one eats pucks like him. Everyone talks about his growth, not many people talk about his willingness to play hard and eat pucks. There’s still some growth (to be done) and maybe there’s some puck plays he’d want back (today), but his will, his compete, the other stuff will keep growing. But the way he eats pucks and is hard and stays in battles speaks a lot about him."
Seider blocked a game-high 10 shots against Buffalo, such was his appetite for pucks, pushing him to an NHL-high 205 on the season. There's a reason, as Lyon said Sunday, that "Mo has multiple ice bags on after every game. I give him a lot of credit — he’s fearless. It really resonates with our team." He also logged exactly 27:07 for the second win in the last month against Tage Thompson and the Sabres; the Wings didn't allow a five-on-five goal in either game and have all but eliminated Buffalo from the playoff race. In the physical department, Seider had a game-high six hits and ranks 12th in that category among defensemen this season.
"Winning is hard and we’re finding out how hard it is, especially real hockey," said Lalonde, who saw a lot of it during his coaching stint with the Lightning. "It’s the National Hockey League, every night is tough, but this is next-level-type stuff and tonight our guys stepped up."
The only shame of Edvinsson's arrival is that it didn't happen sooner. Perhaps the Wings wouldn't be so desperate for points had they summoned their top prospect from Grand Rapids before they went into a tailspin last month. They did summon him just in time. The Red Wings had gone 1-8 and allowed 4.8 goals per game in the nine games prior to Edvinsson's call-up. They've gone 4-3-2 while allowing 2.8 goals per game since.
The solution is never as simple as one player -- and Larkin's return to the lineup is the biggest difference at play here -- but Edvinsson has clearly stabilized Detroit's defense. He denies entries at the blue line, wins battles in his own zone, and moves the puck up ice, three things that every good team does, and every great team does well.
Edvinsson played 19:23 against the Sabres, about what he's averaged since his recall in March. The Red Wings have rightly asked a lot of him. He doesn't always go unnoticed by Lalonde, who says that Edvinsson's confidence is sometimes a curse like when he was "leading the forecheck late in the third period" of the Wings' 4-2 win over the Lightning last week in which he played north of 20 minutes. His aggressiveness nearly led to a couple of rushes the other way and had Lalonde shaking his head and shouting at defensive coach Bob Boughner on the bench. (You wonder why the man doesn't have any hair.)
"It’s just part of the growth of a thoroughbred," said Lalonde. "You want to let him grow a little but you gotta reel him in. The whole game, I’m like, 'Bougs, reel Simon in!’ and he’s like, ‘I’m on it, I’m on it!’ But right until that game was over, he was on his toes, so I think it’s all just part of the growth and learning. And that’s why you want to put these guys in those really, really big situations. Playing last year at this time is a lot different than playing this year at this time where every play and every puck matters."
Beyond the size, the Swedish descent and the No. 77 on his back, Edvinsson brings to mind a young Victor Hedman. The latter was already in full stride when Lalonde arrived in Tampa, but Lalonde said the way Yzerman and Lightning head coach Jon Cooper used to talk about Hedman's "growth of being so raw as a young player" is echoed in conversations about the two racehorses in Detroit.
"It’s almost uncanny," said Lalonde. "Some of the same concerns — or growth — that we’re going through with Simon and we’re going through with Mo, is where (Hedman) was at."
Hedman was once a non-negotiable for the Lightning, a top-two pick before Yzerman even took over as GM. His evolution into one of the most dominant defenseman in the NHL, a six-time All-Star and perennial Norris candidate, is as big a reason as any for Tampa's back-to-back Stanley Cups and Eastern Conference reign. Hedman erases offense, shutting down plays before they can happen. He also produces it, two points shy of 500 over the last eight seasons during which time he's taken his game to another level. (He has 75 points in 74 games this season as he refuses to let the Lightning fade.)
The offense is still on the come for Seider and Edvinsson. So it was at this stage for Hedman, who had 69 points through his first three seasons (214 games). It's an instructive comparison for Seider, who has 132 points through his first three seasons (241 games). Edvinsson has just three points through 20 NHL games this season and last, but produced at every stop on his way to Detroit in a way that suggests it will eventually translate to this level. Even without the offense, he's already been a top-four defenseman for the Red Wings.
"You can see," said Lalonde, "he’s given us great minutes. He’s been a puck transporter, he’s had great defensive stops, the long stick has kept pucks alive."
In other words -- Lalonde's words -- Edvinsson is "the whole package." He has a casual air about him that belies his age. He smiles when you ask him about the challenge of the NHL, like he's been ready for this for a while. His play backs him up. Lalonde has been sure to point out some of the youth in Edvinsson's game, the "immaturity" he calls it, but couldn't answer quickly enough when asked on Sunday about the rookie's performance relative to expectations since his call-up: "Exceeded it."
"He’s great with the puck, but I probably didn't give him as much credit for how hard he is defensively," said Lalonde. "You can see Bob’s trusting him in all situations. He’s playing in the top four, and when you’re playing Tampa, Buffalo, the Rangers, that’s a whole different world in the top six that he’s up against. So he’s done a really good job and hopefully we’ll keep building it."
It's a big week for two of the biggest players in the Red Wings' outlook. After hosting the Caps, Detroit visits Pittsburgh and Toronto. Seider and Edvinsson will be thrust into duty against lines centered by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on Thursday, Auston Matthews and John Tavares on Saturday. Aside from Larkin, these two young defensemen are the Wings' best answer for the best forwards on the other bench, and the best reason for faith in the so-called Yzerplan.
The Red Wings have raised their floor the past two seasons from cellar dwellers to playoff pushers, partly by plugging holes with vets. Seider and Edvinsson are good enough to eventually raise their ceiling, two sixth overall picks who are here for the long haul. Obvious questions remain across the rest of the roster, but Detroit appears to have two clear answers on the blue line. They're eating pucks and biting off big minutes, and taking a hunk out of the opposition when they can. You can taste the playoffs again in Hockeytown.