For all that Slovakian hockey has given him, Tomas Tatar tries to give back every chance he gets.

That’s why when the Detroit Red Wings were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs on Wednesday, the Detroit left-winger didn’t hesitate when Slovakia came calling, asking him to suit up at the world championship in the Czech Republic.

“I feel like I owe the country a lot for it,” Tatar said. “I grew up there, they gave me chance to become and NHL player so I want to go home and play for the team.

“It’s always honor to play for my national team and I always love to do that. I’m healthy so I’m heading home.”

Tatar made his tournament debut Sunday as Slovakia downed Belarus, the team coached by former Red Wings coach Dave Lewis, 2-1 in overtime in Ostrava and was joined in the lineup by Detroit right-winger Tomas Jurco.

“For sure I’m excited,” Jurco said. “Obviously I’m still a little upset about losing in the first round, but I’m excited to go there and play for Slovakia.

“It’s always an honor to play for my own country.”

Jurco and Tatar drew the assists on the game winner by Andrej Meszaros 1:55 into OT.

Tatar previously played for Slovakia in the 2010 and 2012 world championship, as well as the 2014 Winter Olympics and two world junior tourneys.

It’s the first word championship appearance for Jurco, who has represented his country in last year’s Olympic Games, as well as a pair of world junior tournaments and the world under-18 championship.

This year’s tournament is being held just a few hours from Tatar’s hometown of Ilava, so he’ll have plenty of fan support.

“It’s close to my home,” Tatar said. “I’m getting lots of ticket requests.”

While it’s nice to be part of the same squad as his Detroit teammate, Jurco won’t have to make many introductions around the dressing room.

“I know all the other guys too, so it’s not like it’s a new team,” Jurco said. “But it’s always good to go there with him.”

After scoring just three goals in 63 games with the Wings this season, Jurco is also looking to try and forget the frustration of his sophomore NHL campaign and find a positive way to end his season.

“It wasn’t a great season for me,” Jurco said. “I know that.

“I’m going to work really hard in the season and come next year I’ll be ready to have a great season and score more goals and help the team more.”

Jurco views the 2014-15 campaign as a harsh learning lesson for him.

“I had a good first season,” Jurco said. “I scored eight goals in only 30-something games (actually 36). Maybe it was good for me to – I wouldn’t say to wake up. How would I say – to realize that it’s not easy.

“I’m going to be a hungry person at the start of the season. It’s not like last season I didn’t work out. It was a hard summer last year too. I was trying to have a good season, it just didn’t go so well. Some years it goes well, some years it doesn’t go well. So next year I’m going to be ready and I’m going to have a great season.”

Even though he potted a team-leading 29 goals, Tatar still figures he’s got more to learn to become an elite NHLer.

“There’s lots of (things) I can improve and I’m going to work on it in the summer and come here more ready and try to become a better player,” Tatar said.

Being stronger on the puck is at the top of list.

“It’s about managing the puck at certain times in a game,” Tatar said. “Just be heavy on the puck so you can be faster. And try to work on my D zone coverage.”

He also wants to improve his puck distribution skills and make better use of his teammates to help create more scoring opportunities.

“In some certain moments you don’t want to hold on to it too long and make simple plays instead of trying to do too much and lose it,” Tatar said.

Let The Talks Begin
A road trip to Grand Rapids Sunday night offers the first real chance for Detroit GM Ken Holland and coach Mike Babcock to begin talking about Babcock’s future with the team. They are driving together to Grand Rapids to watch the club’s AHL farm team face the Toronto Marlies in the decisive fifth game of their opening-round playoff series.

“We'll go together to the game on Sunday, a couple hours over, a couple hours back,” Babcock said. “I think some think there's been this grandiose plan, there's no plan. I've been using my energy to try to get into the playoffs and to play hard and execute well in the playoffs.

“Now obviously this is the next thing.”

Babcock’s contract expires June 30, but Holland indicated he’d like to know about his coach’s future by the end of this month.

“Now that the season is over we both understand a decision has to be made and we’ll start the process,” Holland said. “I’d like to think over the next month I’ll get a good sense of where we’re at. I’d like to think we’ll talk once or twice and he’ll know what I’m thinking and I’ll know what he’s thinking. Then you go from there.”

Among the items Holland figures will be discussed by the two men is whether Babcock desires to explore his options as an unrestricted free agent.

“That’s what we’ll talk about,” Holland said. “What does he think of the team? What does he think of the process?

“And then we’ll go from there.”

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