Posted by Joe Haggerty

Nokelainen is looking for a bench celebration sooner rather than later...

 While it’s likely that feisty Fin Petteri Nokelainen will be the healthy scratch when Chuck Kobasew returns to the Bruins lineup tonight against the first place Buffalo Sabres, there’s a strong argument to be made that perhaps Stephane Yelle should sit. With the unimpressive Yelle up in the press box, Nokelainen could then slide over to center between the gritty, skilled Kobasew and the brawling blue collar Thornton.

While the 2-year-old Finnish import has yet to crack the scoresheet this season in 13 games, he’s added a good deal of strength, size and attitude to Claude Julien’s ”energy line” and the 6-foot-1, 190-pounder has performed as a secret weapon for the Black and Gold in the faceoff circle. Yelle was brought into the Bruins’ fold presumably as a faceoff specialist and penalty kill warrior, but the 34-year-old hasn’t been quite as good as advertised while winning only 44.7 (46-out-of-103) percent of his draws.

Nokelainen, on the other hand, has quietly won 73.1 percent (19-out-of-26) while dusting off his skills on the faceoff dot and has earned the right to stay in Boston’s lineup through every phase of his game. The rugged Fin certainly takes pride in his role along the fourth line, but also seemed to have lamp-lighting on the mind when I talked to him recently.

The natural-center has played at wing this season, and seems to be a pretty safe bet not to be sent back to Providence. The youngster would have to clear through NHL waivers — something that wouldn’t happen without a claim from another team — and the coaching staff has taken notice of his solid contributions through the season’s first 13 games.

Here’s a few minutes with Nokelainen:

I’ve seen you take a few faceoffs and noticed that you’ve had a lot of success with them. PN: Actually it’s working pretty good and I’ve been taking some face offs when we’re out there. If he’s having a tough time with somebody then I’ll go out there and take a few, and then he’ll do the same thing for me. It definitely is a good thing to have two guys out there that can take draws and I definitely don’t mind taking them.

Taking faceoffs seems pretty natural given all of the time that you’ve spent at center. PN: Last year for most of the year I played center and even before that too I played in Finland. Even in our own zone, the first one there goes down low and the other takes the winger when he’s coming down and it works out well. Our communication is really good and we know where the other guys are so we can react to each other.

 Claude has mentioned you guys as the “energy line” and talked about how much jump you bring when you’re out there. How much pride do you take in that? PN:We definitely try to finish our checks and of course it’s nice to have some positive feedback, but we want to score some goals too. We’ve been getting great chances along with the great energy that we’re putting out there, and it would be nice to finish some of those chances too.

You can bang bodies, but you last thing you see in the game is a scoreboard.  So we can score some goals and all we really need is one bounce.

Is it easy to get into that mode where you’re out there to be physical and bang bodies, and the scoring part of it takes a backseat? PN: No, the biggest thing is to work hard and try to play your own game. I try to do everything in my own game: I try to hit, I try to score and I try to do everything out there. You know it’s not easy every day to go out there and bang bodies either. There are definitely days where you feel sluggish and you don’t really feel like you’re going…but you have to get yourself going.

A lot of times that’s the way you get the goals too. You work hard, you get to the net and you get the dirty ones. That’s how it goes.

Is this a familiar role to what you’ve done in the past, or is skating on a fourth line something a little different for you? PN: Of course in the past you get to play power play and first line in Finland and you’re getting as many minutes as you can. I hope somebody I’ll be up on the top line too, but right now I’m on the fourth line and I have to do whatever the fourth line is supposed to do.

Of course you want to keep working hard and getting more ice time and getting better lines if that’s what you want to call it. Move up the ladder. I can’t say a better line because it’s just a different role. You just want to get more ice time and maybe score more goals. That’s something that is my goal in the future, but right now I’m on the fourth line and we’re playing good and I don’t mind skating with these guys. Like I said, we just need to score goals. Nobody said that we can’t score any goals, and I’m pretty sure the coach wouldn’t mind us scoring a few.

Is scoring more a matter of getting grittier, tipping pucks or just taking it right to the net? PN:We’ve actually been talking about that a lot, and the way we’re going to get the goals. Obviously we don’t have Marc Savard hands or anything like that or Phil Kessel’s dangle, so we try to get the puck to the net, keep it simple and get the gritty ones.

Shawn Thornton’s got a pretty dangle though, doesn’t he? PN:Oh yeah. That Kessel dangle with the backhand and toe drag. What was that Ottawa? It was sick, yeah. Sometimes he surprises me when he’s got those hands.

Have you really learned a lot while skating with Thornton and Stephane Yelle? PN:Yeah definitely. I think last year even if I didn’t play last year I was watching a lot of video and watching the older guys. It actually surprised me because when I was younger I didn’t watch hockey that way like I could learn something from it. I think it’s a huge part that you can watch the game and learn a part of it. Just watching those older guys and seeing what they do. Even what they do in practice. You kind of learn things about being more patient and saving yourself a little bit on the ice.

Is there something specific that you can really point to as something that you learned from one of the veteran guys? PN: Not really one thing. The biggest thing is working smarter and that you don’t have too always go 100-mph. Sometimes you can cut the corners. Coaches don’t want you to cheat, but sometimes you can work smarter and save those couple extra strides. That can make a big difference.

That can really leave you with a lot more in the tank in the third period too. PN: Oh yeah. Definitely. It allows you to be fresh when you need to be fresh. Little faceoff tricks. Something like that and then you just keep learning.

Going 100-moh has got to be your first instinct through when you get up to the NHL? PN: Yeah, especially when you’re not playing that much. You just want to show sometimes too much. When you’re playing five minutes a game you really have to get yourself going. You’re not really into it and sometimes I felt like I was trying to do too much in that five minutes. And you really can’t, and then you’re off your game. It just keeps going. Like I said, you get older and you get a little smarter and try to keep that going. You can learn a little more every single day.