Hawks' Teravainen may debut Tuesday
Though he wouldn't come out and say it, coach Joel Quenneville pretty much said it nonetheless when he uttered these words Sunday concerning newly arrived center Teuvo Teravainen: "There's a chance he could play Tuesday."
So go ahead and book it: Teravainen will make his Blackhawks debut Tuesday night against Dallas.
The 19-year-old Finnish center was held out of the lineup for Sunday's game against Nashville - though he skated in warmups - and has yet to participate in a full practice. He has, however, hit the UC ice with some teammates and coaches over the past couple of days.
"It was more conditioning and handling the puck, skating and working - very intense," Quenneville said.
The question now is, does his limited ice time since arriving mean limited playing time for Teravainen in his debut?
"Usually, you give him a chance to play the game and get to see how he handles it," Quenneville said. "You might give him some different situations if you're comfortable with the way things are going.
"You want to at least get him in there and give him a chance to play."
Power outage:
Since notching a couple of big power-play goals in a win over St. Louis, the Blackhawks have gone 0-fer on the man advantage since, including an ugly 0-for-4 display Sunday.
"It's definitely got to get better," Jonathan Toews said.
Might the source of the problem stem from the absence of Patrick Kane on the PP unit?
"Obviously we're missing Kane a little bit, but it shouldn't be that big a deal," Duncan Keith said.
"Oh, yeah, he's certainly a big part of our power play," Joel Quenneville said. "But now someone else gets an opportunity."
He's back:
While Bryan Bickell (upper body) and Michal Rozsival (lower body) were sidelined against Nashville, Brandon Saad returned to the ice after missing three straight games.
Saad opened the game skating on a line with Jeremy Morin and Ben Smith but ended up alongside Jonathan Toews and Kris Versteeg.
So close:
Joel Quenneville's 3-year-old, Midnight Hawk, finished second to post-time favorite Chito in the $800,000 Sunland Park Derby on Sunday evening. It was the third straight runner-up finish for Midnight Hawk.