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What a difference a day makes.
After looking like the 1970s Soviets playing France on Saturday in Edmonton, the Hawks did a bit of an about face Sunday night in Vancouver, falling 4-1 to the Canucks.
Brent Seabrook was -3, Jonathan Toews -3, Marian Hossa and Kris Versteeg -2 (and all that’s excluding the empty netter that sealed Jannik Hansen’s first and likely lone NHL hat trick).
Well, back-to-backs on the road are tough, and the Hawks get to rest up before Wednesday night’s game in Denver.
So how do we fill space until then?
It strikes me that a look back at this past summer’s debate over the readiness of Teuvo Teravainen is probably now overdue. First, let me say this. I was accused over the summer of being a “TT Hater.…
I’m not. Not now. Wasn’t then.
The point I tried to make back then, which triggered an alarmingly hysterical backlash on Twitter and another blog, was that Teravainen, at 19 years of age and 170 pounds, was in all likelihood not ready to assume a regular role in the NHL.
In fact, I think he’s probably going to be a very good NHL player. Someday. When he’s ready. Always have.
But let’s look at how well Teravainen’s doing thus far with Rockford, a very good AHL team. AHL, as in, not the NHL. And not really that close.
17 games, 2 goals, 8 assists, -4.
OK.
For comparison sake, the guy the Hawks felt (at least after they lost out in alleged pursuit of Ryan Kesler) should be their #2 center, Brad Richards, has 12 points in 22 games, and is +4. And that’s in the NHL. And Richards was supposed to be “washed up.…
Kesler has 17 points in 22 games and is -1. Also in the NHL.
Anecdotally, you hear that Teravainen floats, avoids contact and makes low percentage passes. Which is pretty much how you expect a European player to perform in his first season on the much smaller North American ice sheet.
Not that he’s a bad prospect. He just wasn’t, in spite of a LOT of fan and blogger hype (not so much the team in this case) a plug and play NHL center this year.
What you do see is kids like Mark McNeill really stepping up at Rockford, Philip Danault acquitting himself well in his first couple of NHL games, Adam Clendening coming in and having some ups and downs (one of them last night) but still looking like a prospect who might be ready soon. But all these guys were drafted before Teravainen was and have played the entirety of their careers in North America.
Because as I’m wont (there I said it) to say, there’s no substitute for experience: either in the NHL or acclimating oneself as a player to a completely different style and flow of play on another continent.
Not going to say the three words I want to say. But if you were one of those banging the “TT at 2C… Drum over the summer, you needed some perspective. And now you have it.
All for now,
JJ