Teemu Pulkkinen II: Re-signed 1 year 735k

[Winger98]

I honestly think Babs got to him. IE he started to look bad offensively after he tried that really fancy SO attempt if I remember. I think he got reamed out for it, and told if he doesn't play heavy and stop the fancy stuff he is going down.

As I said before I kind of feel like Babs would have ruined Datsyuk if had gotten a hold of him before he had broken out offensively. I don't feel Tats or Nyquist would be as far a long offensively if he had a choice either. He had no choice but to let them play with all of the injuries.

I think Blash will better know how to utilize some of the young guys. He knows how they play offensively, and is used to relying on them to produce. He is still going to demand good two way play, but I think he'll be more open to them trying stuff.

I don't think it was the shootout that earmarked when Jurco's game started going south, but when he through that borderline hit against the Bruins in the regular season. He sent a guy in hard and face first into the boards, the Bruins got on him, and his physical game disappeared.

I don't know if it was the Bruins getting after him, or maybe the fear of seriously hurting someone, or if the coaches got on him to pick his spots better, but Jurco has eased back on the physical part of his game quite a bit since then, and hasn't been nearly as difficult to play against. He doesn't shy from physical play, but he doesn't engage it like he did originally.

We've seen something similar with Smith after he threw that hit against Chicago in the pre-season and got suspended for it (a weak suspension, imo). His physical edge hasn't been nearly as present since then, either.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

I don't think it was the shootout that earmarked when Jurco's game started going south, but when he through that borderline hit against the Bruins in the regular season. He sent a guy in hard and face first into the boards, the Bruins got on him, and his physical game disappeared.

I don't know if it was the Bruins getting after him, or maybe the fear of seriously hurting someone, or if the coaches got on him to pick his spots better, but Jurco has eased back on the physical part of his game quite a bit since then, and hasn't been nearly as difficult to play against. He doesn't shy from physical play, but he doesn't engage it like he did originally.

We've seen something similar with Smith after he threw that hit against Chicago in the pre-season and got suspended for it (a weak suspension, imo). His physical edge hasn't been nearly as present since then, either.

Was probably the fact his back was shot for the back-half the season. Alarming for a guy that young, but remember he had back spasms.

I do think Smith dialed it back which is disappointing, he was also basically told to give up pinching hits for the most part something he is very good at. He was punished for chasing hits at times early on and it seemed to take the edge away. I think he is out of the woods as far as repeat offender status at this point, hopefully a more aggressive Smith comes to play under Blashill.

 

[Pavels Dog]

I honestly think Babs got to him. IE he started to look bad offensively after he tried that really fancy SO attempt if I remember. I think he got reamed out for it, and told if he doesn't play heavy and stop the fancy stuff he is going down.

As I said before I kind of feel like Babs would have ruined Datsyuk if had gotten a hold of him before he had broken out offensively. I don't feel Tats or Nyquist would be as far a long offensively if he had a choice either. He had no choice but to let them play with all of the injuries.

I think Blash will better know how to utilize some of the young guys. He knows how they play offensively, and is used to relying on them to produce. He is still going to demand good two way play, but I think he'll be more open to them trying stuff.

I don't think so. Babs gets some unfair blame like this. Jurco had 2 or 3 really fancy, terrible SO attempts and after that, sure, he didn't get any chances in the SO anymore.
But he did stuff like stickhandle on the blueline in his first call-up, lose the puck leading to a goal against. And was right back on the ice for the next shift and only looked better after that. We also haven't seen Babs take icetime away from Tatar after he's had awful stickhandling attempts as the last man. We've seen glimpses from stuff like 24/7 of Babcock telling Jurco to "just play your game" and encouraging Tatar when he was hanging his head. The notion of Babcock being anti-skill is wrong, but he probably doesn't love when a kid does 'hotdog' moves that fail (what coach does). Jurco had some of that early on and those moves were awful and definitely don't work at the NHL level so it's only good that he's removed that from his game.
I don't think any outside influences should be blamed for Jurco last season.

I dislike the changing of history that is taking place, trying to discredit Babcock's influence on every young player that has had a good development curve, and blaming him for everyone that's struggled. Blashill isn't going to be some prospect-whisperer that bring outs the max potential of every young player. Heck no one wants to touch on subjects such as him playing veteran AHLers instead of prospects like Backman/Sproul. The exact type of thing that Babcock gets massive criticism for.

 

[mattihp]

Can there be a separate Jurco thread?

 

[Mijatovic]

Must be Robot. Must filter all data. Can't live with merged thoughts.

 

[mattihp]

Is there any way to get more out of Teemu's shot? Is Brett available to give some advice?

 

[Frk It]

Is there any way to get more out of Teemu's shot? Is Brett available to give some advice?

Continue to quicken release. Don't have to try to kill every puck.

I think his slap shot accuracy is really good, but he could improve the accuracy on his one timer.

 

[mattihp]

Continue to quicken release. Don't have to try to kill every puck.

I think his slap shot accuracy is really good, but he could improve the accuracy on his one timer.

I was thinking more of a way for him to quickly learn these things. Because if he can harness that power you have got an NHL scorer.

 

[Frk It]

I was thinking more of a way for him to quickly learn these things. Because if he can harness that power you have got an NHL scorer.

I'm not sure what you mean. It doesn't happen overnight. He will have to continue to make adjustments.

 

[haulinbass]

I agree that it's silly to assume Blashill will be some type of savior to our prospects.

Although in Pulks case I do think Blashill could be a game changer. I thought Pulks was trying way to hard to prove his abilities to Babcock. He can be confident knowing that Blash understands exactly what he brings to the table which should put him at ease and allow him to calm down and play his game. Every single shift it looked like he was trying way to hard to make a difference to prove he should stay in the NHL which backfired. Even if Babcock was still our coach I think Pulks would have been just fine but Blash may bring him confidence and make his transition quicker. I think to many people undervalue Pulks because he didn't look great in a very brief NHL stint. I am not saying I think he will be a star but I am not going to count somebody out who scored that many goals in the AHL. How could you? Guys don't do that everyday.. I need to at least see a couple full NHL seasons before I am willing to try and take anything away from this guy.

 

[Shaman464]

I agree that it's silly to assume Blashill will be some type of savior to our prospects.

Although in Pulks case I do think Blashill could be a game changer. I thought Pulks was trying way to hard to prove his abilities to Babcock. He can be confident knowing that Blash understands exactly what he brings to the table which should put him at ease and allow him to calm down and play his game. Every single shift it looked like he was trying way to hard to make a difference to prove he should stay in the NHL which backfired. Even if Babcock was still our coach I think Pulks would have been just fine but Blash may bring him confidence and make his transition quicker. I think to many people undervalue Pulks because he didn't look great in a very brief NHL stint. I am not saying I think he will be a star but I am not going to count somebody out who scored that many goals in the AHL. How could you? Guys don't do that everyday.. I need to at least see a couple full NHL seasons before I am willing to try and take anything away from this guy.

The advance stats show his trying was paying dividends.

 

[mattihp]

The advance stats show his trying was paying dividends.

Can you explain this further?

 

[Hagged]

Can you explain this further?

By quick glance his corsi stats are good, but especially his iCorsi/60: http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/rat...=0&type=individual&sort=icorsi60&sortdir=DESC

12th in the league. Well, this stat basically only shows who are willing to shoot, and is heavily skewed in favor of guys with little TOI, weak QoC and good QoT.

But being a rookie 12th in the league in any stat is positive. On top of that his points/60 pace is only 0.1 behind Nyquist and Zetterberg. Third in on ice Corsi (of Detroit players) behind Datsyuk and Tatar.

 

[Actual Thought*]

Continue to quicken release. Don't have to try to kill every puck.

I think his slap shot accuracy is really good, but he could improve the accuracy on his one timer.

I agree. His re;ease needs to be A LOT quicker. He telegraphed everything and NHL players made him pay. When I think of him playing I think of his stick straight up in the air while he gets knocked off the puck. It is an image we saw over and over in his stint last year.

 

[Pavels Dog]

I agree. His re;ease needs to be A LOT quicker. He telegraphed everything and NHL players made him pay. When I think of him playing I think of his stick straight up in the air while he gets knocked off the puck. It is an image we saw over and over in his stint last year.

He wants to get max power on every shot. He needs to realize not every shot has to be a bomb. Speed of release and accuracy should be his biggest priorities to work on this offseason. It doesn't matter how hard he shoots, most goalies will still stop the puck if they're square to the shot, unscreened and know it's coming.

 

[Actual Thought*]

He wants to get max power on every shot. He needs to realize not every shot has to be a bomb. Speed of release and accuracy should be his biggest priorities to work on this offseason. It doesn't matter how hard he shoots, most goalies will still stop the puck if they're square to the shot, unscreened and know it's coming.

You're right. He needs to bring a lot more than a canon slapper if he is going to succeed in the NHL. He should talk to Glenda about backhands.

 

[Hagged]

He wants to get max power on every shot. He needs to realize not every shot has to be a bomb. Speed of release and accuracy should be his biggest priorities to work on this offseason. It doesn't matter how hard he shoots, most goalies will still stop the puck if they're square to the shot, unscreened and know it's coming.

He has a good one timer though. I wonder why he didn't utilize that more in his NHL stint. Looks like most of his AHL goals were one timers. At least a couple of his NHL goals were also one timers.

 

[Anchor Town*]

Continue to quicken release. Don't have to try to kill every puck.

I think his slap shot accuracy is really good, but he could improve the accuracy on his one timer.

How often does he wristshot, backhand, or snapshot his one timer?

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

I got offered money to write opinions on hockey, and then was turned into an HF partner. So here's my hot take on Pookie. http://alongtheboards.com/2015/07/teemu-pulkkinen-one-year-prove/

 

[Frk It]

How often does he wristshot, backhand, or snapshot his one timer?

What are you trying to say? You realize those were two separate thoughts, right?

 

[Kronwalled55]

He wants to get max power on every shot. He needs to realize not every shot has to be a bomb. Speed of release and accuracy should be his biggest priorities to work on this offseason. It doesn't matter how hard he shoots, most goalies will still stop the puck if they're square to the shot, unscreened and know it's coming.

I really think Pulkkinen is an exception to that. On a couple of his NHL goals so far, the goaltenders weren't screened on the play and he still fired it past them. Fleury had to do a little lateral movement here, but he was still positioned alright for this shot.

 

[Pavels Dog]

I really think Pulkkinen is an exception to that. On a couple of his NHL goals so far, the goaltenders weren't screened on the play and he still fired it past them. Fleury had to do a little lateral movement here, but he was still positioned alright for this shot.

That's like textbook "how to score on NHL goalies". Getting the goalie moving, having people in front of the net, one-timer. We didn't see that type of perfect set up for Pulkk's on the one-timer too many times last season.

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

I'm excited for Jurco and Pulks, I don't think they'll be squareholed into positions they shouldnt be playing under Blashill.

 

[Rzombo4 prez]

I got offered money to write opinions on hockey, and then was turned into an HF partner. So here's my hot take on Pookie. http://alongtheboards.com/2015/07/teemu-pulkkinen-one-year-prove/

If he is at his best as a perimeter player, we should probably temper our expectations. As we have witnessed in the playoffs over the last half decade, perimeter play doesn't go very far.

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

If he is at his best as a perimeter player, we should probably temper our expectations. As we have witnessed in the playoffs over the last half decade, perimeter play doesn't go very far.

I think you're partially true. But I think it generally takes younger guys a few playoffs to find space in the post season as we're witnessing with Tatar, Nyquist, and even Sheahan, who's game seems the best tailored for the post season of the three. Pookie has to solidify himself as an NHL regular before we worry about his post season play though, obvi.

I think guys like Jurco and Pulkkinen truly will benefit playing under Blash than Babs though.