'They've Been Dynamite Together': Teuvo Teravainen And Ilya Mikheyev Are A Great Pair
The Chicago Blackhawks have been tinkering with lines a lot so far this season. That tends to happen when you’re near the bottom of the NHL standings and the offense has been lackluster for most of the year.
After Tuesday night’s win over the Washington Capitals, it is clear that Anders Sorensen has found a duo that might stick together for a while. That would be the pair of Teuvo Teravainen and Ilya Mikheyev. They were outstanding again in this comeback victory.
These two have only been playing together for a couple of games as both of them have been bouncing up and down the lineup this year.
Technically speaking, this is Chicago's third line with Jason Dickinson at center. Dickinson is a sound defensive player which allows Mikheyev and Teravainen to create a bit more. He is no stranger to offense either as he can put the puck in the net too.
When Frank Nazar came up to the Blackhawks, that led to the creation of this line as they quickly got Nazar into the top-six with some veterans.
In the aforementioned win over the Islanders, Teravainen had three assists. Mikheyev had one goal and one assist. These two were offensive catalysts once again.
During the game prior against the New York Islanders, Teravainen also had a three-point effort with one goal and two assists. Mikheyev scored a goal in that one as well.
If these two stick together and keep playing like this, the Blackhawks will have some depth up front all of a sudden. If Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar can drive offense on their lines, the Hawks will win some games as we've seen recently.
After the game, this was a hot topic during Anders Sorensen's postgame presser as he talked about how these two had great chemistry.
"They've been dynamite together." Interim head coach Anders Sorensen said of this new dynamic duo. "Two games now and they've found some chemistry there. I think with [Mikheyev], a lot of it is his skating. He's a really good skater and when he does drive his feet and challenges defenders and backs them off, I think that's when he's at his best."
Sorensen is exactly right. Both Mikheyev and Teravainen are very skilled players (especially Teuvo) and they both skate so well. Moving their feet is a big key to them putting up big numbers in bunches.
Now with the Seattle Kraken coming to town, you'd like to see them continue to find each other for these goals. If they do that, they could finally win three in a row for the first time this season.
You can't help but wonder if Teravainen gets another shot with Bedard now that his confidence is back but that will create more difficult matchups for him as teams work extra hard on Bedard. Either way, the Hawks need all of their offensive players to produce so they can continue winning which helps with development.
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