Teemu-Pulkkinen-9-27-14

Teemu Pulkkinen wants to be more accurate with his shots tonight in Buffalo.

(AP File Photo)

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Mike Babcock had only one complaint about Teemu Pulkkinen's performance Saturday night in Washington, when the young sniper made his NHL season debut for the Detroit Red Wings.

Pulkkinen didn't put enough shots on net.

The Red Wings coach wants Pulkkinen to shoot at every opportunity after he scored an AHL-leading 20 goals for the Grand Rapids Griffins before being recalled with Johan Franzen (upper body) and Tomas Jurco (back) on the sidelines.

Pulkkinen did that but his accuracy was a problem.

"I thought he was good," Babcock said this morning at First Niagara Center. "He was on the puck, he shot the puck. He's just got to learn to, like lots of guys, it's got red around it, you know where to shoot, just hit that thing.

"It's unbelievable how much more you score when you hit it than when you don't."

Pulkkinen played 20 shifts and saw 16;21 of ice time in the 3-1 loss to the Capitals. He was credited with three shots on goal to share the team lead with Justin Abdelkader, Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall.

He understands Babcock's message.

"Yeah, I missed couple of shots," Pulkkinen said. "My job is to hit the net. If you do that at least there might be a rebound and our guys can score. Yeah, that's my job. I have to hit the net more."

Pulkkinen was second in the AHL scoring race with 39 piots when he was recalled.

He thinks getting another NHL game under his belt - he played three without registering a point last season - will benefit him tonight when the Red Wings face the Buffalo Sabres on the night the club is retiring Dominik Hasek's No. 39.

"My body feels good right now," said Pulkkinen, 23. "For sure, the speed was higher and the guys are stronger in NHL but I think it was OK. But that was only one game. That's not enough, you have to do better every day and every game.

"I'm looking for better game tonight. We can do better. I can do better. Hope we can improve our game tonight."

Babcock said there will be no lineup changes for the Red Wings tonight.

Here are the Red Wings' anticipated lines and defensive pairings vs. Buffalo:

Gustav Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Justin Abdelkader

Darren Helm-Pavel Datsyuk-Tomas Tatar

Drew Miller-Riley Sheahan-Teemu Pulkkinen

Stephen Weiss-Luke Glendening-Joakim Andersson

On defense:

Jonathan Ericsson-Niklas Kronwall

Kyle Quincey-Danny DeKeyser

Brendan Smith-Xavier Ouellet

Goalies

Petr Mrazek (starting)

Tom McCollum

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

-- Like MLive's Detroit Red Wings Facebook page