The Michael Scott GIF. After a 10-month layoff, that's how we enter the 2021 season for the Red Wings.
If only we had Michael's same wisdom. His same intuition and foresight. Then we'd have all the answers for the Wings. Instead we're left with a bunch of questions, boiled down to five as Detroit begins play Thursday night against the Hurricanes.
Is Dylan Larkin ready?
All things with the Wings start with their newly-minted captain. Is the 24-year-old ready? Ready to break into the NHL's upper echelon of stars? Ready to be Detroit's best player every game, 56 games in a row? Ready to carry his team on nights it can't carry itself? Ready to turn losses into wins and water into wine? Ready to do all that while taking the torch from one of the greatest captains in franchise hist -- no, in NHL history?
In truth, the captaincy should be easy. Larkin doesn't need to be anything other than himself to live up to the new letter on his jersey.
"He has a burning desire to be successful here," Steve Yzerman said Wednesday. "He’s someone that I know I can count on to represent what our team is about, what our standards are, what our expectations are. I think he just lives it on a daily basis, so it will be very natural for him."
Otherwise, Larkin needs to be more than himself. In some cases much more. He was tied for 29th among centers in points last season. He was fifth to last in plus-minus. He didn't garner Selke consideration. He was a good-sometimes-great player who fell well short of elite, well short of where the Red Wings need him to be. This is the season he needs to start closing that gap.
Two arbitrary targets: top 15 center in points, top 15 vote-getter for the Selke. And a few game-winners for good measure.
Who's this year's Robby Fabbri?
In other words, who's giving this team more than it was expecting? And maybe the answer is as simple as this: Robby Fabbri. The Red Wings would love to see Fabbri lengthen the strides he took last season, especially as he transitions from wing to center.
More discoveries like Fabbri, who produced at a near-50 point pace after a trade from the Blues, are crucial to Detroit's rebuild. Not all the prospects are going to become players. Only a few of the players are going to become stars. Along the way, you have to unearth more talent.
Center Vlad Namestnikov -- Yzerman's first-round pick for the Lightning in 2013 -- is one to watch. Defenseman Troy Stetcher is another. Both landed two-year deals from Yzerman in the offseason, and both have earned praise from Jeff Blashill. And while this wouldn't constitute a 'discovery,' a breakout season for Filip Zadina -- say, 20 goals -- is exactly the sort of boost this rebuild needs.
What is Danny DeKeyser?
It wasn’t all that long ago he was a burgeoning top-pair defenseman. Certainly that’s what Ken Holland and the Wings were banking on when they gave him a six-year, $30 million contract in the 2016 offseason. The deal wasn't so crazy at the time. Given the arc of DeKeyser’s career, it sort of felt like a bargain.
But what is DeKeyser now? He’s 30 years old, 31 in March, and he's played a total of eight games over the last 18 months. Those are the facts. He's a worn-down body who's become an expensive second-pair defenseman. That's the perception.
So this is DeKeyser’s chance to rewind his career. To revive the defenseman who chewed up minutes, countered the opposition’s top line and provided some offense to boot. Who performed to the standard of his $5 million cap hit, which is on the ledger for Detroit for two more years, and who looked like a piece of the future. The way he skates, don't count it out.
Is the first line a top line?
We know the first line in Detroit: Mantha-Larkin-Bertuzzi. Health and production willing, they'll spend the next 56 games together. The question is whether they comprise a top line in the NHL, whether that trio can be the driving force of a winning team.
Larkin has the look of a No. 1 center; that doesn't mean he's there. Mantha has scored at a 30-goal pace each of the last two seasons; he hasn't met the mark in either. Bertuzzi is an All-Star on the Wings; he's a middle-six forward on almost any other team. Great lines are anchored by great players. Collectively, these three are good.
Their chemistry is evident. They complement each other well. They're like a watered-down version of the best line in hockey, Pastrnak-Bergeron-Marchand: the finisher in Mantha, the two-way playmaker in Larkin, the point-producing pest in Bertuzzi. Feel that stretch? Good. Detroit's top line needs to raise the bar for the team to do the same.
Are the Red Wings any better?
All of these questions, plus several others, ultimately answer one: are the Red Wings getting better? That has to be the aim this season. Forget the standings. By the end of May, the Wings need to feel more confident about where they're going. They need to feel closer to getting there. After one of the worst seasons in franchise history, improvement shouldn't be hard.
At the same, this is when the rebuild gets tough. The same core of players that's become accustomed to losing has to turn the arrow upward. The same organization that has the fewest wins in the NHL over the past four years has to rediscover what winning demands. Contending for the playoffs is somewhere in the future. First, the Wings have to start contending for each point.
"We got a number of young players that are starting to come into their prime -- you mention Dylan Larkin, but Anthony Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi, Filip Hronek, Filip Zadina -- and we have to make sure they continue to grow as players and develop the winning habits that it will take to win long-term," Blashill said Thursday. "That’s the No. 1 thing, that we’re doing it right and developing the type of habits that it takes to win over the long haul."
And for all this talk about the players, the coach's contract expires after this season. Blashill is under the microscope as much as anyone in the organization.
Everybody stay calm. Stay f**king calm!!