Teravainen will be the lone Hawk playing hockey for the next two weeks in the NHL’s new international tournament. But it will be high-stakes hockey, at least.
Blackhawks forward Teuvo Teravainen will play for Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Stacy Revere/Getty Images
ST. LOUIS — As the Blackhawks’ lone representative in the 4 Nations Face-Off over the next two weeks, Teuvo Teravainen will get to play in high-intensity, high-stakes games for Finland — something he certainly won’t get to do with the Hawks this season.
But while he grinds through the NHL’s new international tournament in Montreal and Boston, his Hawks teammates will get to enjoy a different experience: defrosting.
“I’ve got to turn off the group chat for a little bit so I don’t see any pictures of the beaches,” Teravainen said Saturday with a grin. “It’s always fun to go play, but I’m sure those guys are happy to go on vacation, too.”
Finland will be sizable underdogs against all three opponents: Sweden, Canada and the United States, against whom they’ll play their first game of the tournament’s round-robin stage Thursday. That was always going to be the case, but now that Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen will miss the tournament due to injury and Hurricanes forward Mikko Rantanen might also, their roster looks even weaker.
Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov, Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho and Predators goalie Juuse Saros are Finland’s biggest healthy stars. Teravainen — playing in an international tournament for the first time since 2018 — could slot seamlessly alongside Aho, his longtime former teammate in Carolina.
“I feel like it’s easier to be the underdog,” Teravainen said. “Finland, when they play their best, it’s all about defense and good goaltending and playing good together. If we can do that, we’ll be a very dangerous team.”
Special-teams catalyst
Teravainen deliberately avoids attention as much as possible, but he has roughly met expectations in his first season back in Chicago. He’s not a reason why the Hawks sit 31st in the standings.
After recording a goal and an assist Saturday, he is second on the team in scoring, with 40 points (including 28 assists) in 55 games. His defensive play has been solid, too. He’s a central part of both the power play and penalty kill, helping both units currently rank among the top 10 in the league.
“[His] playmaking abilities are really good, and he’s in a good spot all the time,” interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “He’s reliable.”
Teravainen, laughing: “The coaches, they always tell me to shoot the puck more. But I’ve played a lot of games and I’m still looking for the pass, so I don’t think it’s going to change…” https://t.co/GJ95M8hZ9H
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) February 8, 2025
Mrazek’s mindset
Unlike Teravainen, Hawks goalie Petr Mrazek will take advantage of the two-week break to escape hockey altogether — and to celebrate his 33rd birthday on Valentine’s Day.
“First thing after [Saturday’s] game, [I’m] flying out of the country,” Mrazek said this past week. “The break is going to help mentally for sure, and physically.”
Mrazek enters the break on a high note, having saved 31 of 33 shots in the Hawks’ blowout win Friday. After a rough December and first half of January in which he went 1-7-0 with an .854 save percentage over nine appearances, he has rebounded by going 2-2-1 with a .909 save percentage in his last five appearances.
Even still, he said the Hawks’ team struggles have weighed on him more this season than during the past two — perhaps because of the cumulative discouraging effect of three straight seasons in the NHL basement.
“It gets [to] you,” Mrazek said. “[It’s] not just me; everybody around the room can say it’s mentally hard. You’re trying to stay positive on things, and then sometimes there are days and games when it’s hard mentally. That’s the situation we’re in.
“I’ve felt like it’s been a little worse the last couple of weeks, or maybe a month. After the last two years, I thought, ‘It’s going to get better. It’s going to get better.’ And actually it’s not. That’s the problem.”
