Dylan Larkin's golf outing with Detroit Lions players just blew up online, and the reaction says everything about his trade limbo.
This week, a clip of Larkin putting his Olympic gold medal on Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown went viral, and the replies turned ugly fast.
Plenty of fans piled on calling him a quitter and worse, several tying the gesture directly back to his very public trade request from Detroit.
One reply said fans would boo him for the rest of his life. Another told St. Brown to stay away from a teammate they labeled a traitor outright.
The comment section under this tweet is absolutely ripping Dylan Larkin apart. If you take the time to read through the responses, it's clear that the reaction to his gesture is overwhelmingly negative, with fans seemingly united in their criticism.
The clip itself is harmless, just a couple of athletes clowning around on a golf course, but the timing made it read as something else entirely to a frustrated fan base.
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Either way, the volume of anger tells its own story. This is exactly the kind of reception waiting for Larkin if he actually has to report to camp.
Why this reaction makes an awkward return even worse
Larkin requested his trade after Detroit missed the playoffs for a tenth straight season, just weeks after he helped Team USA win Olympic gold in February.
On the ice, he still put up 34 goals and 33 assists for 67 points over 74 games last season, the kind of production that makes moving him genuinely complicated.
Detroit finished last season 41-31-10 with 92 points, and the front office is currently searching for a new general manager after Steve Yzerman stepped away in mid-July.
A captain getting mocked this hard online for a lighthearted golf clip isn't really about the medal. It's about a fan base that already feels like he's checked out.
Training camp is under a month away, and reactions like these suggest Little Caesars Arena could be an ugly scene if Larkin actually skates out for warmups.
Whether Detroit finds a trade before then, or Larkin has to face that reception in person, is still completely unresolved.
Is the backlash against Dylan Larkin over his golf outing actually fair?
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