Tomas Jurco 12-8-15

Red Wings forward Tomas Jurco is congratulated after scoring his first goal of the season on Tuesday.

(The Associated Press)

DETROIT - Not everyone can be like Dylan Larkin and flourish in the NHL at age 19. Precious few can, actually.

Tomas Tatar needed four years with the Grand Rapids Griffins and didn't establish himself as a scoring threat in the NHL until he was 23.

Gustav Nyquist spent more than two years in the AHL before experiencing his breakthrough NHL season at age 24.

That's not to say Tomas Jurco will be as good a scorer as those players. But while he struggles to find his way in this league and into the Detroit Red Wings lineup on a regular basis, coach Jeff Blashill stressed patience with the skilled forward who's still 18 days away from his 23rd birthday.

"Patience for us, patience for him," Blashill said. "He and I talk lots about the mental toughness that is needed to overcome adversity and the adversity of not playing and getting the opportunities he wants. So Jurco is still young.

"He was really young (19) when he came to play for me (in Grand Rapids in 2012-13). A lot of his peers had played that year of junior but because of his age he had to leave junior, so we're very aware of that. We want to have patience with him. We think there's a lot to his package. He also has to, every time he gets a chance, grab the spot and grab those opportunities and he did that the other night by scoring."

Jurco displayed some of his stick skills with a nice forehand-to-backhand move in front of the net to score his first goal in seven games this season during the second period of Tuesday's 3-2 shootout loss at Washington.

"I think it's a good thing for me, obviously, and it was an important goal, it gave us a lead, 2-1, so it was a good feeling," Jurco said. "Like I've said many times, I just want to work hard and keep playing (well).

"I felt good in the ice the last game and I want to keep going. Just go to the net, skate hard, play hard."

He missed the last half of the third period and the overtime after receiving a cut over his lip from a high stick, which required five stitches.

Ultimately, Jurco would like to crack one of the top three lines and play a more offensive role. For now, he's on the fourth line with Luke Glendening and Joakim Andersson and must skate, check, play physical and go to the net.

"When Jurcs is the most effective is when he's using his speed; he can skate really well for a guy that's 6-foot-2," Blashill said. "When he's tenacious on the puck both from a forecheck standpoint and a tracking standpoint, that's when I think he's at his best.

"He's got real good hands, he's got ability to score goals. When he gets pucks in the O-zone he can make real good passes and he can score. But in order to get those pucks, he's got to make sure his skating on the puck is really good."

RED WINGS NOTES

No false bravado for Larkin: After Dylan Larkin won a roster spot following the preseason, the Red Wings couldn't have expected he would be this good so soon. "Having had Dylan last year in the playoffs in the American League, I knew that he had some special qualities about him," Blashill said. "He's somebody who is a confident young guy and I think in order to be young and successful in this league, you have to have an inner confidence, a real, true confidence, not a fake bravado, and he's got that. To what level he was going to produce, I don't know that you could predict that."

Larkin's preseason test: Blashill got a good indication of how Larkin would react in the NHL in the preseason. "I played him against a lot of the other best players in the league," Blashill said. "He played against (Pittsburgh's Evgeni) Malkin, he played against (Boston's Patrice) Bergeron, he played against (Chicago's Jonathan) Toews and he seemed to pass the test. He's one of those guys that's passed it at every level, at every different situation."

-- Follow MLive Sports on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

-- Download the Detroit Red Wings on MLive app for iPhone and Android

-- Follow Ansar Khan and Brendan Savage on Twitter

