Posted on by

Teuvo Teräväinen, Power play drives Blackhawks in home opener win: Observations

Teuvo Teräväinen, Power play drives Blackhawks in home opener win: Observations

CHICAGO — Five games into the season, you probably don’t want to jump to too many conclusions. While it may not be possible to say that the Chicago Blackhawks will be a playoff team this early, it certainly doesn’t look like they will be one of the worst teams in the NHL again.

The Blackhawks showed signs of this during their four-game road trip, but they delivered the message even more clearly in Thursday’s home opener. On the other hand, the San Jose Sharks are probably one of the worst teams. With or without 2024 No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrini, who sat out Thursday with an injury, the Sharks will struggle this season. So if the Sharks are the benchmark, then the Blackhawks handled them easily on Thursday, winning 4-2 with a dominant performance.

Aside from the first period of the season opener against Utah, the Blackhawks are trending in the right direction.

“There’s a lot more experience in this room now and I think they’re matching each other to stick to the game plan and we’ve been a little more consistent,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said after the win. “I’m happy with the way we played overall – I keep adding games but apart from the first part of the season it’s been pretty solid. We can improve on the power play and create more scoring opportunities, perhaps through our forecheck and of course our line rushes. We can probably clean it up a little bit and do a little better job and have a little more direct, straight line and a little more direct attempt to create a little more offense in those areas without opening it wide open. That will affect how we play defensively.”

Teuvo Teräväinen was officially welcomed to Chicago by 19,056 spectators. When the squad was introduced before the game, he received the loudest applause. Teräväinen was part of his share of the win at the United Center in his first appearance with the team and was happy to add another to the total.

“Big win, especially at home,” said Teräväinen. “We have to be great at home and use the fans. Overall, just a great day at home. This is what we have to do.”

It doesn’t look like the Blackhawks will be a high-scoring team at five-on-five. Even in Thursday’s win, they only managed one five-on-five goal. But where they can create some distance from their opponents is in the power game.

The Blackhawks scored two power play goals on Thursday, marking the second time this season they scored multiple power play goals in a game. They only managed that five times last season.

The only big difference from last season’s power play is the addition of Teräväinen. His vision and quick play allow for an enormous influence on the power play. His chemistry with Connor Bedard will only grow as well.

Here is the first power play goal, with Teräväinen assisting Tyler Bertuzzi:

And the second time, Teräväinen serves Nick Foligno at the top of the net.

“He just sees,” Richardson said of Teräväinen. “He sees openings and knows exactly what the next play is before he gets it on the bat. This is indicative of Foligno’s goal. I don’t know if Nick was almost ready for it, it came so quickly. Their penalty box, their penalty kill was just changing and turning while the puck thought it was going to go that way and it came against them that way. I think Philadelphia did that really well with (Jakub) Voráček and (Claude) Giroux. I saw something like that on this power play tonight. If we can do something like the power play we did a few years ago, that’s a good sign.”

The Blackhawks will likely run a five-on-three power play in Friday’s practice after failing to capitalize on a few chances in the game, but overall it looks like the power play could be a strength this season.

Bedard and Teräväinen will collect points together all season long. Bedard had two secondary assists to Teräväinen’s two primary assists. Both are tied for eighth place in the NHL with seven points.

Taylor Hall knows he has to prove he can stay healthy this season, but he appears to be back in form.

“He ran great, really strong,” Richardson said. “I think even when he’s throwing pucks out along the walls, he just drives through people and drags everything with him. It looks like it was glued to him. This goal looked like the old Taylor Hall: powerful, consistent, shooting the puck quickly. It is difficult for goalkeepers who move sideways with him to stop and start moving. It was in the back of the net before the goalie even noticed it.

“It was a great game from him. I think he’s shown signs of coming back. He works extremely hard, he’s in great shape and I think a bit of timing like this, games like this will help him get even stronger.”

Lukas Reichel made his season debut on Thursday after being a healthy scratch in the first four games. The fact that there was no five-on-five game due to the penalty shootout was not an advantage for him. He finished the game with a team-low 8:31 of ice time while playing on the fourth line.

Richardson liked what he saw from Reichel.

“I thought he had some good plays,” Richardson said. “There was only one time in the second where I think he kind of ran into a guy at the blue line, where maybe he realized a little earlier that he was running out of space and so he drove a little further . But otherwise as a coach it’s just a small thing. I thought he was tough in the faceoff circle, he blocked a shot in the third period, and he really showed the initiative to make tough moves, whether it was on the reset, which helps our D, or on offense and on the forecheck. So it was a good start for him.”

Reichel is expected to remain in the lineup for at least one more game and hopes to see ice time on Saturday.

Artyom Levshunov, the Blackhawks’ 2024 first-round pick, got his first taste of the crowd at the United Center on Thursday. Although he is still sidelined with a foot injury, Levshunov, the No. 2 overall pick last summer, was announced along with the rest of the Blackhawks’ roster.

Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said Thursday that Levshunov’s schedule has not changed. Levshunov has skated alone so far and may join the team in the near future. He is still expected to join the Rockford IceHogs when he comes off injured reserve. Goalkeeper Lauren Brossoit is also close to returning from injury.

This was a short survey, just 30 minutes, but it’s obvious that most fans are still unable to watch the Blackhawks games this season.

CHSN seemed more willing to make its negotiations with Comcast public. On Thursday, CSHN posted on social media how fans can contact Comcast to request to carry CHSN. The responses did not go as CHSN had hoped.

More on that soon, but I doubt Comcast will budge on its offer to put CHSN on the highest tier from what I keep hearing.

The Blackahwks placed defenseman Alec Martinez on injured reserve Thursday with a lower-body injury. Richardson said the injury was a groin strain and was bothering Martinez. The Blackhawks have recalled Isaak Phillips and will likely rotate him and Nolan Allan based on performance.

(Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)