Carolina Hurricanes: Keys to CBJ matinee game
By Conor Power
Teuvo Teravainen Time
In my keys to beating the bolts, I mentioned Martin Necas was the solution to covering for the absence of Turbo. Now, Teuvo Teravainen needs to reciprocate. Teravainen is one of the premier players on this Canes roster, and he has been quiet since coming back from the COVID-19 NHL protocol list, and understandably so. He was locked in a hotel room for 2 weeks, he will be rusty.
However, that needs to turn around tonight for Carolina to have hope of beating the Jackets. As I am writing this, Necas was in street clothes at the Hurricanes Wake County practice facility today, and it’s unlikely he plays against the Jackets. This means someone will need to step up big to fill the shoes of the young Czech, and who better than the man Necas stepped up to fill in for?
I know it’s still way too soon to be asking for Teuvo Teravainen to go back to spinning around on a dime, throwing the puck into the slot, and showing himself to be a pinball wizard as it turns a corner, stops for a coffee, realizes it’s lost all before it lands perfectly on the tape of one of his linemates. He truly is a wizard with the puck when he’s going and Carolina needs him back there.
It’s completely understandable for Teravainen to have been a little sluggish on his return, but now he needs to step up because this team needs him. He’s no longer flying under the radar as an underrated player. He’s a big part of the organization in both ends of the ice, and Carolina needs him right now to step up drastically and help the production of the forwards and stabilize a line defensively.
Teravainen probably isn’t in good enough game shape to slot into his rightful place on the SAT line, that’s just true. However, he needs to be playing higher up the lineup, and he needs to show signs of his production picking up. He’s got 2 points in 5 games. That’s more than nothing, but that’s not the Teuvo Teravainen we’ve come to know and love.
It’s almost going to be a case of waking the sleeping giant that Teravainen can be and then let him go ballistic when the puck is on his tape. Whether that’s done by easing him onto the powerplay or throwing him into the fire 5-on-5, something needs to be done to see a rise in production from the Helsinki, Finland native.
From his 318 games as a Carolina Hurricane so far, he’s acquired 74 goals and 173 assists. That’s the Teravainen that the Carolina Hurricanes will need in order to escape this matinee with two points. It’s an incredibly difficult task for Teuvo to be asked to get back to being a point per game player in his 3rd game back, but big players step up in big games. Without Necas, this is a big game.