Dimitri does really good work. He put out a Larkin pod last year as well. This was a good watch imo. You can listen to it as a pod as well wherever you get podcasts.
OrionWilliamHi
This was a great episode. The PDOcast is one of my absolute favorite hockey podcasts, and (despite my obvious bias as a Wings fan) this episode is a fantastic example as to why. Dimitri and his guest, Darryl Belfry, did an excellent job of giving an articulate and thorough explanation for several key aspects to Larkin’s game, as well as Raymond.
I think that they really put into words what many fans have been seeing in Larkin for a while now. They point to his strengths, and explain why they were so severely suppressed during the depths of these past awful seasons, and why we’re starting to see those strengths come to fruition as he’s gradually being surrounded by increasingly competent players. I love it.
Belfry summed it all up so well with this:
“So much of this league is situation. The situation that you’re in is really important, the line you play on, the strength of the line versus the line you’re playing against, the amount of offensive zone time that you can have. Like, these are all things that stack up for an offense player. When those things are not available it’s really difficult to overcome your situation, and to see like, a Larkin get seventy points on a team that perpetually misses the playoffs, like, that’s incredibly – do you know how talented you have to be to do something like that? It’s really tough right?”
Keep in mind that Belfry is one of the absolute premier development coaches in the world. He’s worked directly with Crosby, Kane, Tavares, Matthews, MacKinnon, and many other elite players. He’s no scrub. I would say that his opinion on this matter aught to carry a bit of weight.
The section on Raymond was also great, it helps me to better understand the difficulties he’s had since his rookie year, and to appreciate his improvement despite some setbacks. Something that I also think is often unfairly overlooked with players who come into the league as teenagers, have an unexpectedly strong rookie year then seemingly regress, is that the guy is still very young. What is he? Like, 21? He’s got like five or six more seasons until his prime *begins*.
He’s playing against guys who have been in the league for much longer, are more developed both physically and mentally, and he, like Larkin, hasn’t necessarily had a ton of great veterans around him. Plus, he’s lined up against the top lines in the league on a regular basis. Sure, he plays with Larkin, and Perron was there last season, but some of the comments I’ve seen here are absurdly critical.
2 Comments
Dimitri does really good work. He put out a Larkin pod last year as well. This was a good watch imo. You can listen to it as a pod as well wherever you get podcasts.
This was a great episode. The PDOcast is one of my absolute favorite hockey podcasts, and (despite my obvious bias as a Wings fan) this episode is a fantastic example as to why. Dimitri and his guest, Darryl Belfry, did an excellent job of giving an articulate and thorough explanation for several key aspects to Larkin’s game, as well as Raymond.
I think that they really put into words what many fans have been seeing in Larkin for a while now. They point to his strengths, and explain why they were so severely suppressed during the depths of these past awful seasons, and why we’re starting to see those strengths come to fruition as he’s gradually being surrounded by increasingly competent players. I love it.
Belfry summed it all up so well with this:
“So much of this league is situation. The situation that you’re in is really important, the line you play on, the strength of the line versus the line you’re playing against, the amount of offensive zone time that you can have. Like, these are all things that stack up for an offense player. When those things are not available it’s really difficult to overcome your situation, and to see like, a Larkin get seventy points on a team that perpetually misses the playoffs, like, that’s incredibly – do you know how talented you have to be to do something like that? It’s really tough right?”
Keep in mind that Belfry is one of the absolute premier development coaches in the world. He’s worked directly with Crosby, Kane, Tavares, Matthews, MacKinnon, and many other elite players. He’s no scrub. I would say that his opinion on this matter aught to carry a bit of weight.
The section on Raymond was also great, it helps me to better understand the difficulties he’s had since his rookie year, and to appreciate his improvement despite some setbacks. Something that I also think is often unfairly overlooked with players who come into the league as teenagers, have an unexpectedly strong rookie year then seemingly regress, is that the guy is still very young. What is he? Like, 21? He’s got like five or six more seasons until his prime *begins*.
He’s playing against guys who have been in the league for much longer, are more developed both physically and mentally, and he, like Larkin, hasn’t necessarily had a ton of great veterans around him. Plus, he’s lined up against the top lines in the league on a regular basis. Sure, he plays with Larkin, and Perron was there last season, but some of the comments I’ve seen here are absurdly critical.
Great listen/watch. Highly recommend.