DETROIT – Over the weekend a six-year-old YouTube video surfaced showing an exuberant, rosy-cheeked teenager having a blast shooting pucks in a friend’s basement.

The video was on its way to going viral Sunday before it was deleted from the social site earlier in the day. Though Dylan Larkin probably wishes it was removed sooner.



Since Sunday the video has reappeared on YouTube. (Watch it above while the link still works).

The 3 ½ minute video of harmless fun shows the Red Wings’ rookie, calling himself D-Boss, before he and a friend, Evan Gizinski, aka, EG Slayer, get in a “quick snip show session down here in the dungeon.”

Yes, he says snip in the video, not snipe (cut him some slack, he was 13).

Reporters caught up with Larkin following Tuesday’s practice at Joe Louis Arena to ask him about the video and his alter ego, D-Boss.

“When we were 13 we were hoping that it would blow up and get a bunch of views. So it's fun,” Larkin said, referring to the video. “Looking back, yeah, it's a little bit embarrassing, it makes me cringe a little bit but I was a kid. I was young.”

Larkin’s Red Wings teammates definitely had some fun at the rookie’s expense, of course.

“It's been funny, I guess,” he said. “They're all having fun with it. I guess I have to own it. It's already out there."

The beginning of the video, shot in his friend’s basement, shows Larkin draped in an American flag and wearing a rally cap (that’s a baseball cap turned inside out), as he introduces what’s about to go down.

Flashes of Larkin’s wicked quick wrists – which have already produced 18 goals in his rookie NHL season – are evident at times in the video. But the rest of the ‘acting’ is definitely … not very good.

“We were one day watching a bunch of YouTube videos and it was kind of a joke,” Larkin said. “We were kind of making fun of the people that make videos of them shooting pucks.”

Larkin said they just made up the nickname, but how does he feel if D-Boss eventually sticks?

"I don't know,” he said. “I don't mind it, I guess. I don't know. It's kind of funny. We'll see, I guess."

With his 23-save shutout in Monday’s 3-0 win over Florida, goalie Petr Mrazek now leads the NHL in goals-against average (1.97) and save percentage (.933).

The 23-year-old also became the sixth youngest goalie in franchise history to reach 20 wins in a season.

“First of all one of the ways to be successful and one of the requirements to be a real good hockey team is you have to have elite goaltending,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “Certainly when somebody has those type of rankings that means you’re getting that type of goaltending. I also think it’s a team stat. Goals against and save percentage certainly have to do with how you play defense and how your team defense is. Do you give up lots of back door opportunities? Do you give up lots of seconds? Do you give up big-time Grade A’s all the time? … And I think we’ve done a good job of that and I think Petr’s been great and had to be great.”

Justin Abdelkader Left Wing - DET Goals: 14 | Assists: 13 | Pts: 27

Shots: 95 | +/-: -3

The Red Wings were relieved to learn that Justin Abdelkader would not have a hearing for his hit on Florida center Aleksander Barkov in the second period of Monday’s game.

The 20-year-old Russian was injured on the hit and did not return to the game. On Tuesday, he was sent home to Florida.

The Panthers have a game tonight in Buffalo.

Blashill said he wasn’t surprised by the league’s decision not to hear the case.

“I thought it was an absolutely clean hit,” Blashill said. “From my definition of what’s a great hit in hockey today, it was through the body, it didn’t spin him at all. All the things I’ve been told that would cause it to be a potential suspension, none of it was there. I thought it was an absolute clean hit and it doesn’t surprise me there wasn’t a hearing.”

PHANEUF DEALT: The Toronto Maple Leafs traded their captain on Tuesday, sending him to Atlantic Division rival Ottawa as the centerpiece of a nine-player deal.

The 30-year-old defenseman is expected to join up with his new team Wednesday in Detroit, where the Red Wings will host the Senators at 7 p.m. EST.

In 31 games against the Red Wings, Phaenuf has produced eight goals and 19 points.

Phaneuf has 24 points in 51 games this season.

“Ottawa, it’s always interesting games when we play them,” Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “It’s high paced and most of the time it’s high-scoring games. Him coming in with a veteran’s presence, been in the league for a long time, and it just adds up the depth in their blue line. Erik Karlsson is probably one of the best defenseman in the league and then you add Phaneuf too. It will definitely help their team.”