Wings recall Pulkkinen again as frustrated Babcock shuffles deck
In the words he typically chooses carefully, as well his actions that can be less-than-subtle, it's abundantly clear that Red Wings coach Mike Babcock is starting to lose his patience.
He's plainly tired of watching his one-line team struggle night after night. Lately, that lone line producing has been the unit centered by Henrik Zetterberg and flanked by Justin Abdelkader and newcomer Erik Cole. They scored the only two goals, both by Abdelkader, in a 5-2 loss to visiting Calgary.
Before that, is was the line anchored by Pavel Datsyuk, with Darren Helm on one wing and Tomas Tatar on the other. But that ended as soon as Helm went down with an oblique muscle strain last weekend in Nashville. He was replaced by Tomas Jurco, Babcock giving the struggling young winger an enormous opportunity to find his game alongside one of the world's great centermen.
But in two games in which Jurco took a regular shift on what the Wings considered their No. 1 line, the 22-year-old Czech was pointless with four shots on goal and a minus-2. In his past 14 games since returning from an eight-game absence that began with a back injury, Jurco has just three points, all assists. In 51 games this season, he has two goals among 15 points with a plus-4 rating.
So with Helm still unable to play -- he skated on his own Saturday morning but left the ice when he's teammates came on for practice -- the Wings again recalled Teemu Pulkkinen, the scoring machine in Grand Rapids.
Pulkkinen, 23, was assigned to the American Hockey League club on March 3 and responded with four goals in two games, including a hat trick on March 4 against Oklahoma City. He leads the AHL in both goals (34) and points (61). More than likely, he'll find himself on Datsyuk's left wing when the Wings play at Boston on Sunday (1 p.m. face-off). In 12 games with the Wings this season, Pulkkinen has two goals on 27 shots.
An unmistakable sign that Babcock had seen enough of Jurco in a prime-time role, at least for the time being: Luke Glendening, a checking center by trade, skated with Datsyuk and Tatar during Saturday's practice.
But Babcock's frustration doesn't end with Jurco, who contributed eight goals among 15 points in just 36 games in Detroit last season. Babcock's not at all pleased with what he had hoped would be a solid third scoring line with Riley Sheahan flanked by Gus Nyquist and Stephen Weiss.
It might look good on paper. On the ice? Not so much, Babcock said after the unit flopped against the New York Rangers in Wednesday's 2-1 overtime victory.
"I liked 'em until last night," Babcock said the morning after the Rangers game.
Asked to elaborate, the coach didn't mince words.
"They weren't very good, but lots of us weren't very good," he said. "We'll give it another try (against Calgary) and see if they can't spend some time in the offensive zone. To score, you have to have the puck and play in the offensive zone, not in your own zone."
But all three players remained ice cold against the Flames, too.
Weiss, unable to convert several chances from the rim of the crease in the past handful of games, has just one goal and two points in his last 15 games. Sheahan has a goal among four points in his last 11 games. And Nyquist's scoring touch has betrayed him for more than a month; he has a single goal and four assists in 12 games. All three players are seeing plenty of time on the power play, as well.
Asked about Nyquist, with 21 goals among 44 points in 63 games, still Detroit's fourth-leading scorer, Babcock again spoke bluntly, suggesting the 25-year-old Swede has to work harder.
"Nyquist is a real good player," Babcock said. "He's scored a lot for us on the power play, not so much on even strength. For him to be at the highest point of his game, he has to be on pucks more. He has to be more tenacious. The more retrieval races you win, the more you have the puck and the more you're on offense and the more goals you're going to score.
"It's pretty simple: If you don't have the puck, you're not scoring."
Nyquist couldn't argue with that, and acknowledged that with the oppositions' best defenders preoccupied by the Datsyuk and Zetterberg lines, his line should get some awfully good opportunities.
"Whoever plays with Pavel or Hank gets the tougher matchups, and that's what we're hoping," Nyquist said. "If we can get a good matchup on that third line, we should be able to create some offense. It should be a plus for us."
Nyquist also felt his line had produced some decent chances in recent games.
"We just couldn't bury it," he said. "Hopefully, we'll get one and the line will start rolling a little bit."
