The Chicago Blackhawks had another practice back from break on Friday. This time, their only representative in the 4-Nations Face-Off returned to the ice. Teuvo Teravainen and his Finnish teammates had an okay tournament but were eliminated in round-robin play.
Teuvo sat out of the first couple of practices following Chicago's return. On Friday, he was able to get back out there in Blackhawks gear ahead of their trip to Ohio to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Teravainen skated in practice on a line with Nick Foligno in the middle and Ilya Mikheyev on the right. Teravainen and Mikheyev have found some chemistry together throughout the season which makes this line no surprise.
He also skated on the top power-play unit with Connor Bedard, Ryan Donato, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Seth Jones. The second unit saw Frank Nazar out there with Lukas Reichel, Craig Smith, Patrick Maroon, and Alex Vlasic.
This is how all of the five-on-five lines and defense pairs looked in practice and likely will look on Saturday night against the Blue Jackets:
Landon Slaggert - Connor Bedard - Ryan Donato
Philipp Kurashev - Frank Nazar - Tyler Bertuzzi
Teuvo Teravainen - Nick Foligno - Ilya Mikheyev
Patrick Maroon - Lukas Reichel - Craig Smith
Alec Martinez - Seth Jones
Alex Vlasic - Connor Murphy
T.J. Brodie - Ethan Del Mastro
Nolan Allan - Louis Crevier
Allan and Crevier are the extras on defense. Crevier is working his way back from an injury in the first place and things got worse in practice. He took a puck off the face and will require stitches. There is no confirmation on whether or not this will keep him out long-term.
The Blue Jackets are having a shockingly good season so far. They are 26-22-8 which is one point shy of the playoff line in the Eastern Conference. For coming into the season looking like a lottery team, being in the race is already a win for them.
Playing against Columbus is the start of an interesting stretch for Chicago. With the trade deadline looming, it is important to evaluate what you have in certain guys on the team. At this point, it would be nice to add assets while developing more of their young talent down the stretch.
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