Week of work boosts Koivula
BRIDGEPORT — If you work for your luck and make your own breaks, Otto Koivula must’ve busted his tail last week in Bridgeport Sound Tigers practice.
His first pro hat trick came in Sunday’s game against Laval. His first goal, on the power play, he banked in off a defender from below the goal line. His second, on a breakaway, was poked off his stick by another Rocket defender and through the legs of goalie Cayden Primeau.
“Lucky day,” Koivula said. “It was good.”
But he talked, too, about how results were going to come if he worked hard. And, asked to go deeper into that, he said he, Sound Tigers general manager Chris Lamoriello and coach Brent Thompson had sat down early in the week to talk about just that.
“About how to work even harder, how to get my game to the next level,” Koivula said. “I’ve been working hard this week, like, extra, skating a little more. I think that gave me extra boost.”
Koivula was a healthy scratch on Friday to begin the Sound Tigers’ threegames-in-three-days weekend. He returned Saturday. He had his hat trick Sunday. The New York Islanders called him up on Monday.
It was a pretty solid week for Koivula, whose second North American pro year has admittedly been a bit of a slog despite some time spent with the Islanders. His transition from wing to center is only a little over a year old, and his growth as a player, at 21-years old, continues.
“We need him to be a little bit uncomfortable,” Thompson said. “To go out and skate half- or threequarter-speed — he had to go back to the basics of working on his skating, his edges, the power, speed work, and just pushing him through that, getting his footwork going.
“To his credit,” Thompson added, “he did. He worked every day last week with us, with Bernie (Cassell,
WHO: Otto Koivula
POSITION: Center
AGE: 21
VITALS: 6-3, 225
RESUME: Called up from the Bridgeport Sound Tigers to the New York Islanders on Monday, he played Tuesday. ... Has six goals and 10 assists for Bridgeport, including his first pro hat trick on Sunday. ... Has played seven NHL games, all this season . ... Fourth-round draft pick of the Islanders in 2016. the Islanders’ skills coach), working on the skating, little puck-control drills.”
Koivula arrived from his native Finland last year as a rookie, struggled through his first month, then seemed to catch fire all at once. He moved to center not long after and finished seventh among AHL rookies with 46 points, including 21 goals.
He went into Sunday with three goals and 10 assists in 23 AHL games this season.
“A lot of times, second year, (a player thinks) ‘I’ll come in and pick up where I left off,’ ” Thompson said. “Now everyone’s aware of you. People know who you are. They know you’re a big body (6-3, 225), skilled, so you’re going to play against their best (defenseman). Now you have to put yourself to another level. You can never be satisfied where you’re at.
“He was a little complacent. Now he’s not. We’re here to push him.”
Thompson said Koivula still needs to work on faceoffs, but he is, with longtime NHL centerman Marty Reasoner, and watching video. His defense has improved, Thompson said, being in the right position and playing a physical game down low in the defensive zone.
And in the other end, teammate Kieffer Bellows said, Koivula’s confidence is growing.
“He’s making plays. He’s seeing the ice well,” Bellows said. “He’s shooting the puck, and he wants to score every time he shoots the puck, which is a skill to have and not many people have it..”
Koivula had never had a hat trick as a professional, even back in Finland before beginning his North American career last year. But he got those two goals early Sunday, before the first period was even half over.
“I remember sitting on the bench and I looked up, saw the clock, like, 9:33,” Koivula said. “I thought, I’ve got two goals already. I’ve got to get the third one.”
Bellows set him up at the right post with a beauty of a pass 9:09 into the second period, and the work paid off.
mfornabaio@ctpost.com; @fornabaioctp; blog.ctnews.com/fornabaio