The Blackhawks finally found a power-play answer against the Kings, and Teuvo Teräväinen was right in the middle of it.
Chicago had spent the early part of the season grinding through a man-advantage that ranked second-worst in the NHL at 10.8 percent, and the group entered its Oct. 27 game against LA riding an 0-for-17 skid. That drought ended in the second period when Roman Kantserov scored to tie the game 1-1, with Connor Bedard and Teräväinen picking up the assists. The Blackhawks went on to win 2-1.
The goal offered the clearest evidence yet that Teräväinen can handle the point on the first unit while Bowen Byram remains out with an upper-body injury. It was a setup role that head coach Jeff Blashill said was chosen because of Teräväinen’s smarts and experience, and because it allowed the staff to avoid throwing off the other unit.
Teräväinen described the job as one that lets him see the whole ice and make quick decisions. He said, "That's one of the biggest things.
If you win the special team battles in the games, a lot of times you come out as a winner of the game, so it has to be clicking. And for right now, when Bo (Byram) is out, I've been there playing blue line.
It's actually a really fun spot. Been playing that a little bit before too, but you can see a little bit [of] everything there, and I got so much skill on either side, so I just try to give them the puck."
Blashill stuck with Teräväinen even as the power play lagged, and before the Kings game he defended the way the forward had handled the assignment. He said, "Ultimately, the power play has to score more than it has.
That's a fact. It goes back to what I just talked about.
We can say there's good chances, things like that, but you got to score eventually, and it's not scoring. Is that on Turbo?
I actually think he's done a pretty good job of what we've asked him to do. I think he's distributed it the right way.
I think he's shrunk the zone when he needs to shrink it. I think he's moved the puck to the right person.
"For the most part, any of the shorthanded chances we've given up, which has been way too many, haven't really been his fault at all. Maybe one last game that I actually thought Spence (Knight) could have got the puck.
But other than that, they haven't... We gave up two breakaways on the other unit that has a defenseman on it.
So it's not necessarily that. I think he's a really savvy player up there.
With that said, we need to start producing. So we made a little tweak today in terms of alignment.
If we don't produce with that tweak, then we'll have to look at moving people around."
That tweak included Patrick Kane and Bedard swapping sides, with Kane moving to the left flank and Bedard to the right. The change helped produce the breakthrough, and Teräväinen’s touch at the point played a part in the sequence after Kantserov won the faceoff.
The Blackhawks got the result they were searching for, and Teräväinen is expected to stay in that spot until Byram returns. The next test comes Oct. 29 against the Detroit Red Wings, who have the third-worst power play in the NHL at 65.9 percent.
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