Down on the Farm: Checking in With Derek Lalonde

Wild.com's Dan Myers chats with first-year Iowa Wild coach Derek Lalonde about a number of topics, including an improved team in Des Moines, changing a losing culture and an update on Alex Tuch in the latest installment of Down on the Farm, presented by Gold'n Plump:

Dan Myers: You weren't in Iowa last season, but the team is much improved. What have you been most pleased with through the first two months of the season?
Derek Lalonde: It certainly is headed in the right direction. At 11-13-3 (as of Dec. 15), not satisfied. But it's been a positive and just to hear our support staff, just to hear our people in the front office, the different vibe, guys excited to come to the rink, we have a really good group.
There's always that balance of development and winning, and yeah, we've left some games out there with young defensemen, young mistakes. In a 1-0 loss [to San Antonio on Dec. 9], Alex Tuch, who I think is going have a long, great NHL career, made a youth mistake in the one-goal against. These are growing pains that are not fun.
But for our total approach, we're above .500 on the road. It's been good, you can see progress, you can see growth, you can see that culture change that we're trying to establish, come to fruition a bit. And I still think we have more.
DM: I know the players that have come up to the NHL club have often spoken about the culture change they feel has been happening down there. How much of an emphasis have you been putting on that and how important is that going to continue to be moving forward?
DL: It's a ton. We want guys held accountable on winning. It goes no further than that game [Dec. 9], Alex Tuch has a lazy play at our own blue line and he compounded it with another lazy play in the slot area and it ended up in the back of the net. I was irate. We had a tough talk later after the game and maybe I was even on that line of crossing it a little bit, especially with a young player. But he literally had that same play twice the next night and he made the play and then he came in and thanked me after the game.
Those are tough conversations. I want guys held accountable for winning, but I also want guys held accountable to themselves too.
Tyler Graovac was underachieving here. His whole mental state, from where he was from his training camp to his start here, and we healthy scratched him. I thought it was a productive conversation, but he may not have liked it. But we had a really good talk, we healthy scratched him, he responded with two really good games after that and he hasn't looked back since.
Same thing with Kurtis Gabriel, before he went up, we healthy scratched him. He wasn't playing to his identity; he was mishandling pucks, he wasn't hard to play against, he wasn't going to the hard areas. Everything you have seen him do up there, he wasn't playing to that identity. It hurt us on that given night, we were a better team with Kurtis Gabriel in and with Tyler Graovac in, but after that, [Gabriel] put together two or three good games and hasn't looked back since.
DM: The last time we chatted, you said Tuch had been your most consistent player on both ends through the first few weeks of the season. At that point, the numbers hadn't been there but it looks like the goal-scoring and point production have been on the rise lately?
DL: He's been very good. Not only is he one of our leaders in plus/minus, any analytic stat you have; we do a bench metric where we grade out scoring chances against every game. The Corsis, the Fenwicks, he's consistently one of our top guys. His growth from start to finish has been great.
And the organizational approach, which could change from day-to-day, he could go up [to the NHL] at any time, but their approach with him is, he's a very important player to the future of the organization, like any first-round draft pick should be. They want to get him a lot of games and let him grow here. I think it's been the right strategy.
He's growing very well. He's been exciting to work with and deal with. There has been ups and downs like there is with any young talent, and I still think there is some growth with his approach and his maturity, but I think he's on track and in a really good spot. It's been fun to watch.
DM: Teemu Pulkkinen has been almost a point-per-game player down there, which isn't a surprise to anyone who has followed his career with the Detroit organization the past few years. But are you seeing him build his game so he can translate that to the NHL level?
DL: I do. The one thing where [Pulkkinen] struggled a little bit -- and this was a battle for him mentally as much as it was physically -- he came to us with a great attitude, a great approach, was a great teammate, but he also had already dominated this League, as far a goals scored were concerned. I think he felt pressure that, 'I've already proven myself in this League, I have to score or it's a failure,' and he started cheating a little bit early.
We talked about it, and I know whether it was [Wild Development Coach] Richard Park or Andrew Brunette, who came down one weekend, I think when they talked to him about playing the game correctly, about not cheating, the offense will be there and he's done that very well.
I think he's going to score at this level, but when he's up with Bruce [Boudreau], yeah, I'm sure Bruce would love the added offense. But he has to be able to play the game right. That means managing his game correctly, staying on the defensive side of plays. That's where he has to be accountable first and then the offense will come if that happens.