In Svechnikov’s long-awaited NHL season debut, a Teravainen hat trick stole the show
On the night everyone was watching Andrei Svechnikov’s long-awaited return, Teuvo Teravainen continued to be impossible to miss. He also can’t miss.
Of all the things that needed to go right for the Carolina Hurricanes this season, a bounceback year from Teravainen was near the top of the list. And while it’s still very early, it’s hard to imagine Teravainen getting off to a much better start.
After scoring all three goals for the Hurricanes in a 3-0 win over the San Jose Sharks — still winless, but a team the Hurricanes needed four third-period goals to beat in the Bay Area 10 days ago — Teravainen has seven in nine games, exactly the kind of offense you’d expect from, say, Svechnikov if he’d been playing.
“When Turbo doesn’t score three goals every night,” goalie Antti Raanta said, “then we’ll need Svech back for sure.”
Teravainen was the first player to score all three goals in a 3-0 Hurricanes win since the late Josef Vasicek 19 years and 364 days ago, in a 3-0 win over the Sharks. He’s also the third player in franchise history to score two natural hat tricks, joining Kevyn Adams and Eric Staal. The other was in November 2017.
“It gives me a little bit confidence, one of the things I was lacking maybe, last year,” Teravainen said. “A little bit too down on myself, maybe. It’s good. At least after tonight, I can feel a little bit good (because) I can be hard on myself.”
After Thursday night’s comeback win over the Seattle Kraken, the Hurricanes continued to enjoy their return to PNC Arena after their long State Fair road trip with the season’s first hat trick, a Raanta shutout and Svechnikov’s delayed season debut.
Svechnikov had chances — a quick turnaround shot against the grain that went just wide, a right-wing laser that Kaapo Kahkonen had to lunge to blocker away — but had only an offensive-zone penalty to mark his return, iffy a call as it was.
“He was great. He looked like he hadn’t missed a beat,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “He’s the type of player that, every time he’s on the ice you notice. Every shift, he does something. Made a couple great passes. Could have had a goal for sure.”
Teravainen wasn’t the only Finn bouncing back. It’s been a rough start to the season for Raanta, allowing 10 goals in his first two games and change, but he was sterling Friday night with an early save on Nico Sturm and a snappy glove on a wide-open Mario Ferraro to keep it 2-0 in the second. He only had to make 20 saves, but they weren’t all easy.
“I’ve been feeling great in practice and I haven’t gotten the bounces, and today was the day where I got the bounces,” Raanta said. “A couple off the crossbar and one off the post and a couple where you didn’t see the puck and it hits you. It’s tough to be a goalie when you give up three goals in the first and you know you can’t give up any more, or the game is over. Some days you go rough patches, but you know, if it would be easy, it wouldn’t be hard. So when it’s hard, it’s not easy.”
The Sturm stop was a big one, given the Hurricanes’ first-period struggles this season. Their two goals Friday and Raanta’s perfect 20 minutes narrowed their deficit to 13-9.
Before the game, Brind’Amour said he’d let Svechnikov’s game determine his eventual ascension from the fourth line, where he started Friday night. It took only one shift. He took his second with Michael Bunting and Jesperi Kotkaniemi with Martin Necas resting after a power play.
That power play, one of the Hurricanes’ best of the young season, ended with Teravainen’s first goal of the night, a tight-angle shot after Seth Jarvis chipped the puck sideways to him from the doorstep. Teravainen’s second was a rocket from the top of the right circle that left Kahkonen no chance. He secured the hat trick by waiting out Kahkonen and roofing it under the bar.
It’s easy to imagine, a season ago, Teravainen shoving that first shot through the crease, or missing the net by a zip code on the second, or trying to force a pass on the third. This October, everything’s going in for him. The real question is, with seven goals and only one assist, what happened to the old pass-first playmaker?
“I’m a little bit confused,” Teravainen joked. “I’ve got to get to my passing game a little more.”
There’s no hesitation shooting the puck now, even if he still can’t fully bend his left thumb after the Jean-Gabriel Pageau slash that prematurely ended his season in the first round of the playoffs.
Svechnikov, famously, didn’t make it that far, his season shut down after he tore his ACL in March, beginning the long process of rehabilitation that finally came to an end Friday night. The Hurricanes were cautious with their young star, who had been able to practice with the team, even if on a limited basis, from the first day of training camp. His impatience to return was palpable, and his time on the fourth line will no doubt be short.
“I didn’t play for seven months, right?” Svechnikov said. “I’ve still got to get my confidence back and the feeling of the puck back and all those little things, those details. Get my head clear when I’m on the ice. It’s going to be fine. It’s going to take me a couple games.”
He got another chance to bump up late in the second, with Sebastian Aho and Jarvis. That has been, and was again Friday, Teravainen’s happy place. The way Teravainen is playing, Svechnikov’s probably going to have to claim someone else’s spot to get into the top six, but that feels as inevitable as beating the Sharks did Friday.
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This story was originally published October 27, 2023 at 9:51 PM with the headline "In Svechnikov’s long-awaited NHL season debut, a Teravainen hat trick stole the show."
