Versatile Pakarinen gaining confidence of bench boss
DALLAS Iiro Pakarinen is turning into Todd McLellan’s Swiss Army knife.
The Edmonton Oilers coach uses the hard-nosed Finnish winger throughout his lineup, first line to fourth, and always knows what he’s going to get — a player who skates, hits and shoots hard.
Pakarinen played 14 1/2 minutes against the Lightning in Tampa on Tuesday, proof that he is gaining McLellan’s trust. In the last five games, he’s played anywhere from 10:18 to 15:47.
In Florida Monday he belted Erik Gudbranson, who suffered an upper-body injury. Pakarinen is similar to fellow Finn Lauri Korpikoski, but plays the body more while the injured Korpikoski (bruised right foot) has better hands.
“I couldn’t tell you what line Pak belonged to in Tampa,” said McLellan. “I dressed seven defencemen (Brad Hunt was the extra) and I wish I hadn’t done it this time around.
“I’d rather have had 12 forwards and set lines. We were all over the map trying to find players and trying to motivate guys, but Pak wasn’t one of them. I put him right wing, left wing, power play, penalty kill. He was very effective.”
Pakarinen plays better than his stats — four goals, three assists — and has grown on McLellan through training camp, into an assignment to the minors and his return to Edmonton on Oct. 25.
He registered his second multipoint game of the season in Tampa, scoring from a bad angle on a bouncing puck and setting up Zack Kassian’s goal. Pakarinen also had two goals against Detroit Nov. 27. He played more short-handed minutes (2:56) than any other Oiler.
Winger Matt Hendricks couldn’t say enough about Pakarinen’s play.
“He was a wrecking ball out there. He was definitely the guy we were jumping behind. He was like a freight train,” said Hendricks.
McLellan delivered a strong message to winger Taylor Hall on the bench in Tuesday’s loss to Tampa.
In the second period, McLellan had a stern talk with Hall over a display of frustration, forcing the winger to go to the end of the bench to collect a new stick.
“The team comes first,” McLellan said. “It’s never going to change here and there are moments in the game where you teach hockey skills and you teach tactics and you teach leadership, too. We had some of those moments, we had good learning moments for our team and individually. Some responded well and some didn’t.”
Hall was having a tough game and was on the ice for three of the Lightning ’s first four goals. Prior to the start of the third period, McLellan went over to Hall once again to reassure his star winger.
“It’s not just about Taylor, it’s about the whole group,” McLellan said. “As we continue to grow we’re going to have tough nights like this, but we better move the needle forward, we can’t take steps back.”
Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse may have got away with a penalty in Tampa when his skate hit Steve Stamkos’s leg, spilling the Tampa captain into the goalpost. It was eerily similar to the game in Boston in November 2013 when Stamkos shattered his right leg.
“That (memory) did pop into my head,” Stamkos said.
Nurse and Eric Gryba had their problems in Tampa. Nurse continues to learn on the job, while playing more minutes than he should. Even so, he’s only minus-four while Andrej Sekera is minus-13 and Justin Schultz minus-10.
The Stars had Jason Spezza with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin in L.A. Tuesday, loading up one line, but coach Lindy Ruff was impressed with Ales Hemsky, Mattias Janmark and Antoine Roussel. … Dallas played their best defence prospect, Finn Esa Lindell, against the Kings. The six-foot-three, 215-pound puck-mover didn’t look overwhelmed. He played three years in the Finnish Elite League before he came over to play in the AHL with the Texas Stars.
ON THE BENCH: Oilers winger Nail Yakupov has played four games since returning from his sprained ankle but McLellan hasn’t seen fit to load him with work. Yakupov was minus-two in 12:45 against the Lightning, with just one shot. Only Anton Lander (11:02) played fewer minutes than Yakupov at forward. McLellan wants more physicality from Yakupov.