Professional sports aren’t the most logical career path for someone who hates attention, but that’s the career path that camera-shy Blackhawks forward Teuvo Teravainen followed.
So when the Hawks discovered and began playing a Teravainen-centric song about a month ago, he was sheepish. He’s the last player who would want that, which makes it funnier to everyone else, of course.
“I don’t know if I like it too much,” Teravainen said Friday, chuckling. “It’s too much attention on me. Maybe once in a while, but not every game.”
It remixes the Outhere Brothers’ 1994 song “Boom Boom Boom,” replacing the “Now let me hear you say, ‘Wayo!'” lyric with “Now let me hear you say, ‘Teuvo!'”
Objectively, it’s clever; his name fits perfectly. After the Hawks’ March 1 win in Anaheim, the song blared in the visitors’ locker room, and the United Center’s game presentation team used it for Teravainen highlight packages during commercial breaks throughout March.
Teravainen isn’t sure where it originated, but he suspects it might have been made after he recorded his 500th career NHL point on Feb. 23. He only knows one thing with certainty: “I didn’t ask for it.”
Silly things like that, while embarrassing for someone like Teravainen, also provide levity in a tough season. He has spoken honestly all year about struggling with his confidence and finding it difficult to stomach playing on a basement-dwelling team after six consecutive playoff berths on the Hurricanes.
The Hawks have lost 10 of their last 11 games (despite some analytical improvement of late) and sit at 21-44-9 with eight games left. Their 51 points are one shy of last season’s total and eight shy of their 2022-23 mark, the year they tanked for Connor Bedard.
They’re now just two points ahead of the Sharks, who have a game in hand, for last in the NHL — although at this point, finishing last and guaranteeing a top-three pick would probably be preferable.
That’s still difficult to stomach, no doubt, but Teravainen has figured out a healthier mental approach during the season’s second half: taking things one day at a time.
“I’ve just tried to prepare for the next game,” he said. “It’s pretty simple. If you stress too much and think too much about stuff, it’s just going to go worse. You’ve got to find the balance to be loose and be hard — you’ve got to find the between.”
Teravainen, to his credit, is one of few veterans who has lived up to expectations this season — the first year of his three-year contract. His 56 points — 41 of which are assists — are his most in three seasons and trail Ryan Donato by just three points (and Bedard by two) for the Hawks’ scoring lead.
Since Dec. 15, he has 43 points in 44 games, tied for 25th in the league during that span. He was actually over a point-per-game during that stretch until cooling off recently.
Almost all of his production comes through his playmaking. He leads the team in primary shot assists (passes that lead to shots), per All Three Zones. But he has been held without a shot on goal in six of his last eight games.
Defensively, he has been fine. His 43.8% scoring-chance ratio during five-on-five play ranks 10th out of 24 Hawks. They’ve been outscored 49-37 with him on the ice, but everyone has been outscored to some degree.
“Coming to a new team and getting to know everything here, it took a little bit of time at the start, but then I got more comfortable and feel like my game was getting better and better,” Teravainen said. “I’m not happy about every game, so I want to be good every night. But it’s hard. There’s a lot of games, a lot of travel [and] everything.”