Chicago Blackhawks: Teuvo Teravainen Part II

Jan 4, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Blackhawks left wing

(86) warms up prior to the first period against the Dallas Stars at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Well, what did you think of Teuvo’s first game? It didn’t have any of the personal highlights that we have come to expect from say #19’s premiere into the league scoring on his first shot on goal, but a lot of times I think it’s better for a slower start than a red hot start for players so that our expectations don’t go out of this world for example crossing sports look at Javier Baez first weekend and then the rest of his season in Chicago.

There are a few things I hope that Joel Quenneville does to give Teuvo a better shot at success tonight, not that Sunday night was a failure he looked tentative at times when he didn’t have the puck and was an easy target when stuck on the boards so here are a few Keys to a better Game #2 from Teuvo.

3. Regular Ice Time– Quenneville played Teuvo 7 times in the first period for over 4 minutes and he was able to collect 3 shots on goal and a hit and the final 2 period his ice time disappeared.  He was on the 2nd unit powerplay and fit right into the Patrick Kane role on the 2nd unit very nicely getting off a good shot on goal.  Youth needs ice time which is one of the biggest arguments that Teuvo was in Rockford in the first place to get a lot of ice time in North America.  Granted, he did receive more ice time in his first game than Jeremy Morin did in all 15 of his but it wasn’t consistent throughout. In all the epix broadcasts before every game Q talks about 4 lines and once the game starts his mind must forget that statement! Roll 4!!

2. Regular Line Mates– The pairing of Joakim Nordstrom and Ben Smith seemed odd to me because they mesh so well with Marcus Kruger and the fact that neither have shown an advanced offensive game in the NHL.  Both are prototypical grinders that are suited for the 4th line.  Part of the tentative game of Teuvo could be attributed to every shift on the ice he was with different players from Hossa, Kane, Sharp, and Smith, and the example was brightest when he ran into Patrick Kane on what could have been an odd man rush.  Yesterday he was with Bryan Bickell and Andrew Shaw who both can respond physically to any nonsense yet have the skill to finish off anything special Teuvo sends their way.

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1. Regular Play Making–  Hopefully after one game of nerves out of the way Teuvo can get back to his regular playmaking ability all game long.  We saw glimpses of it during the game when the puck was on his stick and he had space.  Every pass he made was stick to stick with a couple blind passes being highly skillful.  Tonight against the Av’s I expect a solid game from Teuvo without any nerves or tenativeness.  I thought he looked a lot more comfortable in the third period and I expect some points tonight from #86!

What is you expectations for Teuvo tonight? Usually the sequel isn’t as good as the original, tonight let’s hope that script is flipped!

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