On a night where the Detroit Red Wings were missing a number of players as a result of the massive Covid outbreak ravaging across the National Hockey League, and on a night where even head coach Jeff Blashill was sidelined as a result of the NHL's Covid protocols, the captain has come up huge.

Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin has recorded his first career hat trick in the NHL, and it comes in his 7th NHL season and after having scored well over 100 goals during his NHL career. I would be lying if I said this came as a result of pure skill on the part of Larkin, but nonetheless he made his opportunities count when he got them.

Larkin's 1st goal of the night came off of a very lucky bounce for the Red Wings. It was New Jersey Devils goaltender Akira Schmid who was in net for the Devils on this night, and unfortunately for the rookie netminder the first goal of the game came when he wasn't in the net at all. Schmid left his net to make a play on the puck, but that lucky bounce I mentioned resulted in a wide open net for Larkin, and he made it count.

Larkin's 2nd and 3rd goals of the night were much prettier however. His second goal was in no small part thanks to a great pass from Red Wings forward Vladislav Namestnikov, who found a streaking Larkin in the slot, where once again the captain made no mistake and buried the puck in the back of the Devils' net.

Last but certainly not least, Larkin's 3rd goal of the evening would come thanks to a partial breakaway. Larkin did a great job of picking the puck up in the neutral zone and even though he was skating at a less than ideal angle when he did so, he managed to get down the ice first and bury it past Schmid once again for his first career hat trick in the NHL.