The danger of micromanaging is obvious when the making of a top team like Carolina starts to be gutted with a denser comb. The Hurricane team has collected more than 70 percent of the available points during the first half of the season, being the second best team in the entire NHL after Boston.
On the other hand, after all these years, Carolina is in a situation where its success is no longer measured in the regular season – only the playoffs and the success achieved there have real weight. All assessments already during the regular season must be made with spring in mind.
One interesting note from the first half of the season is related to the team’s Finnish winger Teuvo Teräväinen28. Teräväinen, who broke the sixty point mark three times and seventy points once in Carolina, has sunk in the hurricane group’s food chain in an unexpected way and as a result struggled with his game throughout the fall and the beginning of the year.
Ice hockey is a team game, where a functioning whole always comes before the needs of the individual, but at the same time, Teräväinen is definitely a player that Carolina needs in the spring, if it is going to be successful.
We created Urheilu’s ice hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen with an overview of where Teräväinen is going, why he is going and how the situation ends.
Where do we go?
Teuvo Teräväinen is playing the hardest season of his seven-year Carolina career. The beginning in Raleigh in the 2016-2017 season was somewhat rough, but at that time Teräväinen was still a young player in the development phase. Now kasikutonen is the key player of his team and one of the important starting forces of the puck game, right up to power plays.
In the years 2017-2023 only Sebastian Ahol (0.97) is a higher scoring average in Carolina than Terävä (0.83).
Against this background, Teräväinen’s 18 (3+15) power points in 34 games this season will certainly not satisfy the club as much as the player himself. The EVU graduate missed ten matches due to injury earlier in the fall, so the current pace would only take the winger to 38 power points.
The last time Teräväinen was left with such a balance was in Chicago in the 2015-2016 season.
Perhaps the most dramatic drop for Teräväinen has been seen in superiority points. Last season, he scored 31 power points on the board next to Aho, but now he has only six points. A year ago, Teräväinen scored 8.22 points per hour he played with superiority, now 4.21.
On the other hand, Teräväinen’s game on a general level has been quite good despite the waning power side. Teräväinen is a reliable player who, even in the light of advanced statistics, is a clearly winning player. He also gets to the goal posts in the old fashion and the number of shots is in line with previous years. Only shooting percentage and finishing drop.
– Teuvo is Teuvo. He’s a bit of a chess player. Whether the game is fast or slow, he has good moves. You won’t catch him in a situation where his king is in trouble. He is a smart player, maybe not always flashy, but really smart, Lehkonen praises.
At the same time, it is clear that Teräväinen can do better. The less flattering climax of the difficult autumn season was seen when the head coach Rod Brind’Amour dropped Teräväinen in the quadruple chain.
– A completely pointless solution drops him to the top four, Lehkonen criticized.
Why has it ended up like this?
Why has Teräväinen drifted into the middle of a difficult season?
On the wings of Carolina’s offensive department, the competition has intensified and as a result Teräväinen has sunk down the food chain – practically as the only winger on the team. If we look at Carolina’s most important wing forwards, Teräväinen is the only one whose playing time has clearly decreased since last year.
In addition to this, a star pier purchased from Vegas has also been included Max Pacioretty and Stefan Noesen, who played only two matches last season due to injury. Teräväinen’s total playing time has been reduced by 80 seconds and the superiority time by half a minute. Only the underpowered liability has increased.
Teräväinen started the season in the first superiority composition, but this was quickly dropped to the second for the first time in years. When talking about declining powers, the narrowing of force majeure liability cannot be ignored. Even last season, Teräväinen played together with Aho for almost three minutes of superiority per match, this season’s reading is less than a minute.
The Finnish talents have been on the ice together during all the Carolina years during 132 power play hits, but only one this season. This team still has a lot of unrealized potential for the current season.
At the same time, many piers in the team have succeeded well: Martin Necas is having a great season and also Andrei Svetshnikov, Seth Jarvis, Stefan Noesen and Jordan Martinook are capable of producing results well.
All this has certainly affected Teräväinen’s mood. Teräväinen is known as a very self-critical artist, who certainly has not greeted all the changes made or his own inefficiency with special warmth.
– I think he’s a bit lost and stuck with that superiority game earlier. This is an important thing for him, because Teuvo is a guy who wants to play his own kind of flow, enjoy and have fun. Maybe playing doesn’t go so smoothly right now. It can be sharpened a little, Lehkonen estimates.
After Max Pacioretty’s latest injury last weekend, Teräväinen returned to the first team next to Aho and to the first strength composition. In the last of the games on consecutive days, on Monday morning, Teräväinen logged his biggest minutes of the season, no less than 22 minutes.
– There is nothing surprising about the decrease in Teräväinen’s ice time throughout the season. Head coach Brind’Amour has to bring in Necas and Jarvis, and on the other hand, he knows that Teuvo is an experienced guy who can handle this. Teräväinen has been the coach’s trusted player there for a long time, Lehkonen reminds.
What’s the solution?
Teräväinen is equally any player whose machine Carolina’s coaching staff has to get running by spring one way or another. Carolina acquired playoff success by thinking of Pacioretty scoring goals, but at the same time the club lost By Nino Niederreiter.
Pacioretty has been able to play in only four matches so far.
When you also take into account that in the playoff world Carolina has been profiled as a teddy bear team in recent years, it is understood that the team needs every player – especially the Stanley Cup-winning skill forward Teräväi.
What is the surest way to make Teräväinen’s machine hum?
You don’t have to look far for the answer: Sebastian Aho.
We are talking about the all-time Finnish duo in the NHL. This duo has been wreaking havoc in the NHL for years, both five-on-five and over and under. Over the past three years, Carolina has won its games 57-34 with the duo on the ice 5-for-5 – most often with Svetshnikov or Jarvis as the third link.
Teräväinen and Aho read each other’s movements and games in an exceptional way – and at a level. If the intention is to get Teräväinen to hit in the spring, it would be worthwhile to build the first chain around Tiku and Taku, as well as the first superior composition. The two have plenty of working games, so why not use them?
Right now, Carolina is playing with these compositions.
– Even playing Ahonka is not so balanced if Teuvo is not next to it. It’s a really cool thing that Carolina needs Teuvo in the spring and I think the best way to get him fired up is to put Aho next to him. In a perfect world, I would still take Jarvis out of it and switch to Svetshnikov, Lehkonen’s line.
As a bonus, the dangerousness of the duo in the underpowered game is added. During the previous five seasons, Aho has scored 19 power points with understrength, Teräväinen 14. Aho’s ranking is first in the entire NHL, Teräväinen seventh. One of Teräväinen’s fourteen understrength points has been born without Aho.
– Teuvo is one of the few Carolina guys who has been there longer. Talk about a franchise player. About the player to whom nothing has ever fallen.
NHL stock exchange
ON THE RISE
THE SEATTLE KRAKEN
Lost on Tuesday morning at home to the finalist team of the summer, Tampa, but the big picture is in great shape. The first season of the expansion team a year ago was difficult, but now the team is united and tight both on and off the field. Seven wins in the previous ten and strongly involved in the playoff train.
EELI TOLVANEN
Sometimes a change of scenery can do wonders for a player’s career, and in Tolvanen’s case the start is promising. Stuck in a dead end in Nashville, but after being released through the transfer list in Seattle, hit five lockers in the first seven games. Perfect for a team that lacks expensive superstars. Can still improve, but early on found ways to use his greatest strength, the shot.
JUICE SAROS
Last season, Saros, who belonged to the absolute elite of the NHL, did not have a dazzling start to the current season, but in the last few weeks, things have started to happen. The HPK coach has been hot for a month (from 11.12.), saving with a 93.6 save percentage, which is the best in the entire league for those who have played at least 7 matches. The GSAA rating (13.0) on 5-for-5 is the best in the league. Saros is back!
IN THE COUNT
MIKAEL GRANLUND
It’s dry. Granlund has played three scoreless streaks of 19 games in the previous thirteen months. Of course, there are a lot of assists, but the Finnish star of Nashville has given us permission to expect a slightly better finish. In the current season, the pace of points has been a bit slower than expected anyway.
VANCOUVER
Chaos would be an understatement for Vancouver’s current state. Recently, there has been talk of, among other things, angry star players, the president of the club barking at the head coach in public, who admitted on Monday that he had already been looking for a new coach for months. In addition, the player’s badly treated injury and the at least confusing press conference held by the president on Monday have been in the background. Vancouver is a club with no rudimentary direction.
ARIZONA
Arizona, represented by Juuso Välimäki and Matias Maccelli, had a positive start to the season, but things in the desert have slowed down to a total pancake in the last few weeks. Nine of the ten previous matches have ended in defeat for the coyote pack. A really long spring ahead.