If any Carolina player needed a great start to the season, it was Teuvo Teräväinen. Teräväinen is still a key factor for his team, writes Urheilu’s NHL reporter Tommi Seppälä.
Tommi Seppälä NHL reporter
The long regular season rally is only at the first special test, but a glance at the goal exchange still raises eyebrows. Austin Matthews is in the lead with six hits, Teuvo Teräväinen second with four goals. Teräväi, who joined the Jokeri ownership ladder, is not the first to be known for his goal-scoring skills.
At least not known last season.
The last 23 matches of the season produced only three complete hits for the attacker from Helsinki. The season was particularly difficult for Teräväinen – in fact, the most difficult in seven years. The game didn’t run and the effects didn’t appear like the previous model, so the joy of the game remained hidden.
Now Teräväinen’s instrument plays a different note.
The center forward, who made his way from the Jokers to the NHL, has scored no less than four goals in three matches. Success has a special value for Teräväinen right now. After suffering last season, the 29-year-old Teräväinen had to find his game quickly. Teräväinen brings a lot more to the table than goals and points, but now the taps had to be turned on quickly.
You can watch Teräväinen’s goals in Anaheim in the following video.
Teräväinen is not a selfish artist, but a team player, but at the same time an artist’s soul who lives off the game tool and effects. A year ago, it took 20 matches to break the copper, so the first hit didn’t happen until around Christmas.
It felt that last season, inefficiency, injuries and, for example, falling to another superior composition created a negative cycle that did not want to be broken during the entire season. It also affected Carolina as a team, because Teräväinen is still an important individual for the group.
Now there is a positive spirit in the air, because Teräväinen has had a great start to the season.
A pack of hurricanes hit Anaheim early Monday morning. Teräväinen was on the receiving end of a couple of hits, but also scored two goals himself. Teräväinen also had time to score in the nets of Los Angeles and Ottawa. So the red light has been on in every game of the season so far.
You can watch Teuvo Teräväinen’s opening goal of the season in the following video.
It is certain that this will be greeted with great joy in Raleigh.
In order to succeed in the summer, Carolina needs every cylinder in its scoring game. The club acquired from Toronto in the summer by Michael Bunting, who is only a twenty-goal player at best. Bunting doesn’t have a chance to miss the season due to injuries Max Pacioretty gap left in the group.
Teräväinen doesn’t need to score 30–40 goals, but the team needs insights into the puck game, tasty introductions and a few well-timed hits here and there. In general, the head coach Rod Brind’Amour misses the reliable 60-point quality two-way Teräväi that the club had time to get used to in recent years.
To the delight of the coach, the sled seems to be turning – and it turns when you shoot at 100% power. With five against five, Teräväinen has shot twice and succeeded in both attempts.
Joking apart. At the pace of the opening rounds, Teräväinen won’t swing the net, but that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the artist’s soul finds the joy of playing and thereby its own best level. Regarding the overall game, Teräväinen can improve even from the first matches, but hardly anyone is worried about that
Perhaps it was more important for Teräväinen and thus for the whole team to enter the season ahead of the result and thereby find the right kind of game humor.
Of course, finding a sense of humor and the right female tiger’s eye will certainly be helped by the contract situation as well. Teräväinen is playing the last year of his contract, so now if ever there is an order for a tough season.
There may very well be two winners in this game: Teräväinen himself and the Carolina team.