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First things first, a tip of the cap to the San Jose Sharks.

They came in to the United Center last night and served notice that they can and will skate with the Chicago Blackhawks—and present a competitive challenge, now and in the future. They outshot the Hawks, beat them in the faceoff dot, and more importantly, out-defended the Hawks, forcing them out to the perimeter all night.

Conversely, Blackhawk fans have become a bit spoiled.

The truth is, last night’s game against a really good team like the Sharks are ones that you will lose once in a while, especially in a shootout.

While I don’t have the statistics in front of me, it seems like the shootout sort of equalizes things for the Hawks, arguably the league’s best—or at least one of its top 2-3—teams against their opponents. Neither Hawk goalie is all that great in it, and after Patrick kane and Jonathan Toews, the Hawks don’t seem to have many players with signature gimmick moves.

And the shootout doesn’t matter when the games really matter in April, May and June. Which is where serious Stanley Cup contending teams need to be focused anyway.


ALL HAIL TEUVO

The Blackhawks’ 2012 first round draft pick, C/W Teuvo Teravainen basically ripped it up in the just concluded World Junior tournament in Malmo, Sweden for gold-medal winning Finland.

As a result, debate now rages within Blackhawk Nation over when, how and where he will fit in to the Hawks’ lineup.

My take?

First, Teravainen is likely coming to North America next year. Still signed for another year in the Finnish SM-Liiga, a pro league where he plays against men, including many former NHL’ers, his team is relocating to the KHL next year. And in a recent interview, Teravainen didn’t sound exactly thrilled with the prospect of spending winter weekends in Novosibirsk or even relatively urbane Moscow.

But then again, he’s never been to Rockford in January either. But he did sayhe thinks he will be in North America next season.

As far as how “ready” Teravainen is, at 175 pounds soaking wet, a really good metric might be 2009 5th round choice Marcus Kruger.

Kruger joined the Hawks for good in the Spring of 2011, less than two years after he was drafted, at about the same height and weight as Teravainen. He played well. And although Kruger was a very good junior and pro player in Sweden up to that point, he was not as skilled as Teravainen is.

My opinion, Teravainen could well be ready for regular NHL action in the fall of 2014.

But then the next question. Where does he fit? If Teravainen plays in Chicago, on which line and at what forward position does he debut?

This is a tough one, but clearly, the long term projection for Teravainen is top 6 forward. And if there is a weak point in the Hawks’ top 6 at present, it is (and has been) 2nd line center. Kruger and Patrick Kane have both been tried there with mixed results. 2009 2nd round pick Brandon Pirri has been plugged in there—leading to his eventual ticket back to Rockford.

Instinctively and preferentially, Teravainen seems to be a center, preferring to draw defenders to him and set up teammates. His passing—at the junior level at least—is off the charts. While he has drawn a number of comparisons to Kane already, my first impression of him reminded me a bit of Pavel Datsyuk—a center—at a similar age and development level.

Where Teravainen struggles (and against juniors, much less pros, mind you) is with faceoffs. Now that said, players at his level can improve there. Look no further than Kruger’s 15% improvement in the dot from last year to this one. Which is probably at least partly attributable to organizational faceoff instructor, Yanic Perreault, who would be working with Teravainen as well.

Can TT fill 2nd line center on the Hawks next year? Doubtful, at least not to start the saeason. But by year’s end, with Teravainen’s talent level and reputation for commitment to improvement, it’s conceivable.

Another—and more likely—scenario is that Joel Quenneville would plug the young Finn in wherever there was a need on the top 3 lines, and only when he was recalled from Rockford.

But again, this is all well down the road of conjecture. All we do know is Teravainen will likely be playing pro hockey in the Hawks’ organization this fall.

And that is a case of the rich getting richer.


All for now,


JJ

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