In a perfect world, the Red Wings would have erred on the side of caution. David Perron would have practiced a couple more times after missing almost eight weeks due to a groin injury. He would have had a few more days to get his legs and lungs back before diving into a game. He would have returned to the ice Thursday night against the Canadiens.
But the Red Wings live in an imperfect world, where Dylan Larkin was injured the day after Perron arrived and Andrew Copp was injured two games later, their top two centers erased from the lineup just like that, their playoff hopes suddenly slipping. Perron wasn't re-acquired from Ottawa to watch the Red Wings collapse for the fourth straight season, but to stiffen their spine at just this time of year.
So after Steve Yzerman originally targeted a Thursday return for Perron, there was No. 57 on the ice last Saturday night against the Stars, goading their top defenseman into a wrestling match early in the first period that sent them both to the box, pestering the opponent like he never left, two games ahead of schedule and right on time.
Asked how he was able to beat Yzerman's projection, Perron quipped, "He probably expected two bad games out of me first, so now we’re here." In reality, the Red Wings needed him, and Perron knew it. While "it probably made sense to be cautious" with his return, "you just get to a point, you see the situation around, that was part of it more than anything else," he said.
"One, he was anxious to get here," Todd McLellan said Wednesday. "He had been here, he understands the environment and the team, and a lot of his old teammates are here. So he wanted to get here, and then he wanted to play. He took stock of the lineup and the guys missing."
That includes forwards Michael Rasmussen and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, both of whom were injured in the game prior to Perron's debut. As McLellan put it, "We are what we are. And him being the veteran and understanding the situation and knowing his body, he's compensated quite well."
Perron, 37, has jumped right into a top-six role on a line with Lucas Raymond and rookie Emmitt Finnie, who was two years old when Perron made his NHL debut. Perron could soon be bumped into the bottom six with Copp close to returning, which is where he's best deployed at this stage of his career and what the Wings envisioned when they acquired him at the deadline. Wherever Perron plays, his impact will be felt in the gaps that he fills.
"I’m excited to help any way I can, bring some energy, try and realize what the team’s missing at times — some grittiness, some physicality -- things like that, I can bring," he said.
Perron's 10-year-old son Mason was sitting next to him in the dressing room after Wednesday's practice, listening to Dad (for once?). Perron has scored lots of goals over 19 seasons in the NHL. His hands have always been slick, but he's the first to tell you he's never been a "super flashy player." His mind is faster than his feet. With the Wings clinging to a playoff spot with 14 games to go, desperate to snap a nine-year drought, Perron's value to the team can be distilled into a coaching point he preaches to Mason.
"I always say, can you get an ice cream if you don’t get in the ice cream shop? You gotta get in the store to (score), you gotta keep knocking on the door, keep knocking on the door. And it’s the same with me: I have to be in the mix, I have to be around the net, I have to be in the corners winning battles, and then when you get (the puck) you can’t panic. You gotta make the next play under poise. Trying to teach him that, slowly but surely."
This is what Perron calls "solid hockey." It's even a little slimy at times, which is a good thing for a team that's generally too polite. Knowing his legs might be a little stiff against the Stars, Perron made a point to get on the forecheck from his first shift. On his second shift, he grinned, he "tried to get on (Miro) Heiskanen, get a penalty with him, draw a four on four and you take one of the better players on the ice off for two (minutes)." They were entangled on the back of the Stars' net before being sent to the box, a net win for the Wings.
"Just tried to make my presence known right away," said Perron.
It gutted Perron to miss the playoffs with the Red Wings on the final night of the regular season two years ago. Not for himself -- he's been there 11 times. He's won a Stanley Cup. Perron wanted it badly for Larkin, the captain who wears the franchise-worst playoff drought like a scarlet letter, and for younger teammates like Raymond and Moritz Seider who have yet to experience the thrill of playoff hockey. The Wings missed his edge the next season as they slipped in the standings, while Perron went to Ottawa and helped the rival Senators snap a playoff drought of their own.
Along the way, Perron kept tabs on the Red Wings, "quite a bit, more than usual," he acknowledged. He's no stranger to switching teams in the NHL, but he became so invested in this particular group of players over two seasons in Detroit that he was in touch with them "on the regular, with Larks and Copper and Benny (Ben Chiarot) the most." J.T. Compher, too.
No one ever plays on a team "to say I'm gonna get traded," said Perron, but when it became clear that the Senators might move him at the deadline and he sensed "the rumblings and the feeling" that the Wings were interested, he welcomed the call from Yzerman. Perron had served his purpose in Ottawa, and had some unfinished business in Detroit.
"I think it’s great. It’s an easier transition for me coming here and applying what I do well, off the ice, too, all the little conversations that you can have with guys to talk about our game, the details that we need at this time of the year, the maturity that at times we do have, we don’t have," he said. "Some of the mistakes we make, obviously we’re going to have to weed that out more and more, but we gotta work at it, keep going and guys are still learning."
And Perron enjoys teaching. He has no problem standing up and hammering home a message when teammates might not be grasping it, to "put it out in the middle of the room and hash it out," he said. "I think sometimes that’s the only way to get better." Mistakes are one thing. Repeating them is another. Perron's vocal style is part of why he wore an A in his first stint with the Wings. He's uniquely valuable to a locker room with a mostly quiet leadership group.
"Sometimes, maybe as a young guy you make a mistake and you don’t realize it, it’s good to talk about it," Perron said. "Hopefully I come in and can be another voice, also for the coaches, with some of the experience I have, to help them out, whatever message they have, to push to the guys."
The Red Wings have been in a playoff spot since early December, but their cushion is gone after winning four times in a 14-game stretch that bridged the Olympic break. They're tied with the Bruins for the final wild card, one point clear of the charging Blue Jackets. They've "been hunted for a few weeks now," said Perron, and now they're wounded.
"And I don’t think anyone feels bad for us in the league," he said.
The way Perron sees it, the Red Wings should enjoy this. They shouldn't duck danger but embrace it. With a target on their backs, they should take aim at others. Their blood should boil as the hockey heats up. They should smile when they snarl.
"You gotta kind of know my game to enjoy my game, and expect what to see to like what I do," Perron said. "And hopefully I can bring that more and more as we go — the board battles, the physicality and the whatever-it-takes mentality, too."