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Wings to give Jurco another chance to shine

October 27, 2015, 12:35 PM ET [9 Comments]
Bob Duff
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Tomas Jurco’s latest audition comes Tuesday as the Detroit Red Wings ready to face the Carolina Hurricanes at Joe Louis Arena.

After a four-game sitdown as a healthy scratch, Jurco will skate on the fourth line with Drew Miller and Joakim Andersson and Landon Ferraro will get the seat in the press box.

Detroit coach Jeff Blashill has labeled Jurco a long-term project, feeling that if he can squeeze the same skill level out of the big right-winger that he eventually developed while playing under Blashill with AHL Grand Rapids, it will be worth the wait.

“I just have to skate hard and I’ve got to skate more I think,” Jurco said. “That’s the main thing for Blash, I think he wants me to skate more, and once I do it and work hard, and maybe make some plays, it’s going to help me mentally and I think it’s going to be good.

“I’m excited for tonight and I’m going to work hard and we’ll see what’s going to happen after.”

Blashill continues to preach patience when it comes to Jurco.

“I talked about having a long-term plan, which we do with him,” Blashill said. “We felt like he did some stuff in the last week to get himself in position to be successful here tonight so we’ll get another chance to evaluate where his game is at tonight.”

The keys for Jurco to succeed are at the bottom of his skate blades.

“It’s ultimately being in elite shape so that he can skate non-stop in the game,” Blashill said. “I think he’s going to be an effective player when he’s able to go full-out at all times. So that’s what we’ve tried to work out with him.”

After a slow start in Grand Rapids, Jurco evolved to where he garnered 13 goals and 32 points in 32 games during the 2013-14 season and a call up to Detroit.

That’s the guy Blashill is seeking to find once again.

“I’m trying to translate tenacity to him, so if he’s tenacious on the puck all the time, if he does that, he’s a really effective player,” Blashill said. “He left Grand Rapids as a great forechecker. He was on the puck, he had great stick on puck, he was physical and then he had the puck on his stick, and he’s got a lot of skill to make plays once he has the puck on his stick. And then I thought he did a good job tracking back towards our end as well.

“He was a point a game guy in the American League as a young kid. He came back in the playoffs (in 2013-14) and was one of the best players in the second round against Texas. He’s got lots of ability, we just want to make sure he’s getting the best out of himself.”

There are no other changes to Detroit’s lineup. Petr Mrazek gets the nod in goal.

Quincey Update
Defenseman Kyle Quincey talked for the first time since the Sam Bennett hit in Detroit’s 3-2 overtime loss at Calgary that ultimately left Quincey on the sideline undergoing concussion protocol.

“Not the greatest,” was Quincey’s assessment of how he was feeling Tuesday morning. “I’m just kind of going with the protocol right now. It takes time. There's no timeline (as to when he might be back on skates).”

Quincey indicated he didn’t immediately feel any concussion-like symptoms after the hit and that’s why he was able to continue on in the game, a fortunate development for the Wings who were already without Mike Green, injured earlier in that contest.

“Honestly, it was adrenaline,” Quincey said. “I didn't feel that bad until after game.”

Knowing Green was out also encouraged him to persevere, though Quincey was the first to acknowledge he wouldn’t have attempted to keep playing were his symptoms already apparent.

“That was a big thing, too,” he said of Green being out, “but at the same time, if it was bad - bad at the time, then even if we had one defenseman out there, I couldn't keep going.”

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