Justin Abdelkader’s locker happens to be across the Red Wings’ dressing room from Gustav Lindstrom’s, but when Abdelkader started discussing an interesting quirk about the rookie’s stall recently, he wasn’t just taking advantage of a favorable line of sight. He was looking at a window to his younger self.



“He has one pair of gloves sitting up there,” Abdelkader pointed out, “and that’s how I came in (to the league). I’m like, ‘All right, these guys have three pair of gloves?’ I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, what’s up with this?’”



Back then, a younger Abdelkader would see older players drying their gloves between periods and would think to himself that he’d probably never do that. And for a while, he didn’t. Dylan Larkin never thought having dry gloves would be such a big deal when he entered the league, either. But as Lindstrom may one day come to discover, being an...