TEEMU'S TIME TO SHINE

Nov 7, 2016

By Tom Witosky | Follow @toskyAHLWild

 

Call it a fresh start.

That’s how forward Teemu Pulkkinen describes his approach now that he has landed very unexpectedly in Des Moines to play for the Iowa Wild.

“For this season, it is a new start,” the 24-year-old Finnish native said after a recent practice at the Metro Ice Arena. “I do want to be able to play hockey at the same level I was before I got hurt last year. This is a good place for that to happen.”

Pulkkinnen arrived in Des Moines last week after a jarring preseason during which he was put on waivers first by the Detroit Red Wings after three years in that system and then again by the Minnesota Wild after being claimed from the Red Wings. When he cleared Minnesota’s waivers, the Wild assigned him to Des Moines where he is playing under a one-year, one-way contract.

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By the end of the weekend, the veteran forward had his first goal in a Wild uniform and helped the club stop a slide of two losses on Friday and Saturday with a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory Sunday at home against Rockford.  Pulkkinen said the bus rides to Grand Rapids and Milwaukee and back to Des Moines wasn’t his fondest reminder of life in the AHL.

“It was a bit of a grind. I haven’t had those bus trips in a while. It was eight hours to GR and five hours to Milwaukee and then back here.” Pulkkinen said. “There was a lot of sitting in the bus.”

Pulkinnen acknowledged that finding himself in Iowa is a bit of a surprise, but added that a professional hockey player goes where he is sent.

“I didn’t expect to be here, that’s for sure,” he said. “But, it’s a business and you play where you are told to play.”

Pulkkinen’s addition to the Wild roster came at an important moment with three of Iowa’s top forwards – Tyler Graovac, Jordan Schroeder and Christoph Bertschy – called up to Minnesota to replace several Wild players. Pulkkinen built a solid reputation as a scorer during his two seasons with the Grand Rapids Griffins, one of Iowa’s division rivals.

In two full seasons, Pulkkinen lit the red light 65 times in 119 games with 56 assists during the regular season. In three playoff seasons, he scored 22 goals with 12 assists in 40 games.

“I remember getting a couple of hat tricks here in Des Moines,” Pulkkinen said with a grin.

The 5-foot, 11-inch forward said Detroit’s decision to put him on waivers didn’t bother him much. Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill had warned him that a change might be coming.

“He said that if they couldn’t find me a place on the roster, it was better for me to move on. I actually thought it was a good thing because it gave me a chance at Minnesota,” Pulkkinen said.

His stay in Minnesota was relatively brief because of his inability to provide a scoring punch among a group of about 10 forwards fighting for a few spots on the NHL roster.

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Derek Lalonde, the Iowa Wild’s head coach, said that made the Minnesota training camp unique.

“Literally, we had five or six guys who competed hard to make the NHL team that ended up down here,” Lalonde said. “All I have seen since are guys who are continuing to compete and be mentally tough.”

Pulkkinen has taken a philosophical approach to the situation.

“It was too bad they didn’t want to keep me there,” he said. “But, I will get back to doing the right things on the ice. I just need to get a few goals, make some good plays and I should be on my way back to the NHL.”

Make no mistake, Pulkkinen can be a prolific scorer, Lalonde said.

 “Teemu is a winner and he loves to score goals,” said Lalonde, who got to know Pulkkinen as head coach for Detroit’s ECHL farm club in Toledo. “That was my message to him. He’ll be that winner here and will have plenty of chances to score.”

Lalonde said that Pulkkinen has ended up back in the AHL largely because shoulder problems kept him from getting many minutes on the ice last season and in summer training camps.

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“I watched him dominate in the AHL and make it to the Red Wings,” Lalonde said. “But his last 18 months, it’s been tough for him to get a rhythm. It was playing one night then being a healthy scratch the next night. It’s playing five minutes one night and none the next.”

Pulkkinen agreed, adding that shoulder surgery last summer kept him from skating while he went through rehabilitation. The loss of skating time and having to catch-up on his physical conditioning has had an adverse impact on his shot. Interestingly, Pulkkinen said it is about redeveloping his poise with the puck.

“For me, it’s about poise. When I get my minutes, I get my game back,” he said. “Poise with the puck is really important for me. When you are confident with the puck, that’s when you score some goals.”

 

 

 

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