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The questions about where his goal-scoring touch had gone are no longer being posed to Tomas Tatar.
Detroit Red Wings left-winger Tatar, who scored twice in Saturday’s 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche to reach the 20-goal plateau for the third time in four seasons, has scored five times in the past five games. He’s netted eight goals in the last 13 games.
It’s a far cry from the start to Tatar’s season, which saw him register four goals through the first 31 games of the campaign.
“I’ve been talking about it all season,” Tatar said. “Obviously you don’t want to get these up and downs, you would like to be more consistent. I guess that’s just how the league is.
“Obviously I’m trying to work on it, to be more consistent. When you’re hot or the puck’s going in the right direction, you’re just finding the net.”
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill is a stickler about sticking with the process, and he felt that Tatar’s current status exemplified that if a player is doing just that, all will be as it should be by season’s end.
“I thought earlier in the year he was playing good, he just wasn’t scoring,” Blashill said of Tatar. “It wasn’t from a lack of chances. Somebody told me he led the league in posts hit in the first part of the year.
“I don’t think his play has been a whole lot different. I just think now they’re going in and that happens sometimes with guys. Obviously that’s a good line with (Henrik) Zetterberg and (Gus) Nyquist. They’ve been real good together.”
Zetterberg is another who saw Tatar doing the right things all season long, and is happy that his teammate is being rewarded for sticking to the process.
“It’s great to see that he scores goals,” Zetterberg said. “I thought he had a lot of chances early on this year, but everything kind of went against him a little bit.
“It’s good to see him get rewarded here in the end and score some goals.”
As much as he’s enjoyed rediscovering his scoring touch, Tatar would much rather that it didn’t come at the expense of Detroit’s 25-season run of playoff appearances.
“It’s a nice mark,” Tatar said of reaching the 20-goal plateau again, “but I would trade the goals for being a lot closer to the playoffs for sure. So it’s a stat.
“I would always go team first before this.”
Up Again
For the second straight day, the Wings recalled forward Tomas Nosek. He was hailed from AHL Grand Rapids on an emergency recall, just as he was Saturday.
As was the case Saturday, again, there’s a chance that Nosek won’t play in Monday’s game at Joe Louis Arena against the Buffalo Sabres. Forward Darren Helm, who left Saturday’s 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche game in the second period with a lower body injury after being checked by Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson, will test the injury during Monday’s morning skate.
If all proves OK, Helm will play. If not, Nosek will be inserted.
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