Time: 7:30 PM EDT Venue: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, MI, 48201 / The 2018-19 season has not gone like many in Detroit would like, but young forwards Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou give Red Wings fans hope when camp opens in the fall. When Detroit (30-38-10) hosts the Boston Bruins on Sunday night, the Red Wings will ice two first-time 30-goal scorers in Larkin and Athanasiou in the lineup, which cannot be said of many non-playoff teams. Larkin, 22, tallied for the 31st time when he cleaned up a loose puck that caromed off Tyler Bertuzzi's left skate and into the slot, giving the Red Wings a 2-0 lead on the way to a 4-0 blanking of the hapless New Jersey Devils in the Red Wings' fourth straight win. Larkin's goal and assist gave him 68 points, setting a career-high mark in just 72 games played. The Michigan native has a four-game point streak (four goals, two assists), and his 31 goals eclipsed his personal best of 23 set in his 2015-16 rookie season. With his goal in his team's 5-4 win over Buffalo on Thursday, Larkin became Detroit's first 30-goal scorer in 10 years when Marian Hossa (40), Johan Franzen (34), Pavel Datsyuk (32) and Henrik Zetterberg (31) topped the mark. The Red Wings were the lone franchise not to have a player record 30 goals since that 2008-09 season. Athanasiou, 24, showed off his blazing speed by taking a puck at his own blue line, racing past the New Jersey defense and firing in his career-best 30th goal for Detroit's final marker. The Ontario native approached 20 goals in the last two campaigns -- netting 16 last year and 18 in 2016-17 -- and his 30th on Friday looked fine to Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill." It's great for their confidence, it's good for the organization, it's been 10 years," Blashill said. "It's a mark that you don't want to get to once, you want to keep building and get there again, so there's lots of hard work ahead of each one of them (Larkin and Athanasiou)." Boston (47-22-9) pushed hard in the first period down 2-0 against Florida on Saturday afternoon, outshooting the visitors 16-8, but the Panthers pulled away for a 4-1 win. The loss dropped Boston to 29-8-3 on home ice, 16-8-2 against its Atlantic Division rivals and 20-5-4 in its last 29 games overall. Florida's win also snapped the Bruins' 12-game home winning streak, which was their longest since a 14-game run in the 2008-2009 season. The Bruins also lost in regulation for the first time in a matinee contest (7-1-1). The club hosts Tampa Bay in the regular-season finale, also a matinee affair, on Saturday. Noel Acciari scored his sixth goal of the season, and goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped 19 of 22 shots to lose his second straight start and for the fourth time in his last six outings." At the end of the day I don't think we did enough to overcome our poor puck luck," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. "(Today) we didn't generate. ... You could tell we didn't have our 'A' game. Our execution was off. This was a total team loss." --Field Level Media
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