Carolina Hurricanes Fourth Line: A Look At Bill Peters’ Strategies
Bill Peters deployment of the Carolina Hurricanes fourth line draws a lot of criticism.
Listen, Bill Peters is a great coach. Peter’s accomplishments with the rosters given to him in the past three seasons are nothing short of remarkable. He oversaw the return of Jeff Skinner to a first line talent, the emergence of Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce into top-tier defensemen, and transforming the Carolina Hurricanes into a possession monster. Great right? Well except for one little fact: Bill Peters still loves playing his fourth line way too much .
How bad is it?
The Carolina Hurricanes fourth line consists of Jay McClement, Victor Stalberg, and Joakim Nordstrom and averages about 12.67 minutes a game on the ice. Compared to some other teams in the NHL that is a lot of time to have your fourth line on the ice. This is especially true considering Carolina’s heavy road schedule. In the NHL the home team gets to send out their players last and dictate the matchups. Using the fourth line more allows teams to exploit those
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matchups much easier. Toronto’s fourth line averages 10.63 minutes TOI (Time On Ice) a game, Pittsburgh 11.87 TOI, and the L. A. Kings 12.44 TOI. Even the Arizona Coyotes who are actively trying to lose only play their fourth line an average of 11.13 TOI.
One could argue this is a small sample size, and it is, but looking at the past six games shows an even larger usage of the fourth line than the season average. McClement averaged 15.87 TOI, Nordstrom 14.03, and Stalberg 14.47. (Stalberg gets a pass here because his underlying numbers are decent along with his seven goals, but McClement and Nordstrom are just awful at 5v5 hockey). Those are almost bordering on second line numbers. Sure the Hurricanes were without Jordan Staal and Elias Lindholm, but the callups of Brock McGinn, Derek Ryan, or Phil DiGiuseppe all played better yet received similar or less ice time.
But the biggest knock on Peters is not the actual playing time he gives them, but the situations he loves to use them in. It is infuriating to see Peters tap the fourth line for a shift after a big goal. What better way for the opponent to regain some momentum than a good shift against the Hurricanes worst line right? Even though it has come back to bite him in the past, Peters still insists on using the fourth line in this way.
Why does he do it?
There are many reasons for Peters’ peculiar strategy. The first is that coaching is just as much about managing people and personalities as the Xs and Os. Players often perform worse with the added pressure of knowing they’ll get the hook after one mistake. A team with the coach’s confidence tends to play more comfortably and often with fewer mistakes.
Second is that a hockey coach strives to use all four lines on the team. “Roll four lines,” ranks up there with “Throw pucks on net” and “Get to the dirty areas” as the most overused clichés in hockey. But unlike grit and heart, this hockey cliché actually wins games. If every line on a team can come out prepared to do more than just not get scored on then it makes it very hard to beat that team.
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These tactics only work if a team’s fourth line is actually good, though. If every four shifts a team sends out replacement level players, it doesn’t matter how fresh the stars are the team still loses most nights. Hopefully, the Carolina Hurricanes coaching staff realizes this. The fourth line tinkering already started last night against the Canucks. Jordan Staal and Elias Lindholm’s return saw Brock McGinn shuffled down to the fourth line. The results were less than stellar with McClement a -7, Stalberg -6, and McGinn -6 Corsi differentials.
It’s obvious Bill Peter’s isn’t going to stop running four lines. But if he wants to succeed in doing so he at least needs to change his personnel. This might mean bringing up Andrew Polturalski from Charlotte or moving Lindholm or Derek Ryan back to center. Neither options sound great, but they sound better than continuing the status quo of Jay McClement and Joakim Nordstrom. Maybe soon Hurricanes fans won’t have to hold their breath every time they see the fourth line take the ice.