Carolina Hurricanes: Did We Witness the Birth of a New Second Line?

After a fantastic win for the Carolina Hurricanes over the New Jersey Devils, we witnessed new successes in goaltending and a rising defenseman. Another new success was the newly used second line. Could it stay?

The Hurricanes found themselves always having to play catch up after being down at least 2-0 in three out of their last four games. Although the Hurricanes won two of those games with exciting comeback victories, the strategy was unsustainable and definitely needed change.

Rod Brind’Amour put Petr Mrazek in net on his birthday for Valentine’s Day, save James Reimer for the larger game on Sunday against the Edmonton Oilers. Mrazek played lights out, making sensational saves, and only letting in two goals. Haydn Fleury was given extra minutes and he made the most of it, making defensive plays on odd-man rushes that we only expect Jaccob Slavin to deliver.

The underrated success story of the night may be the newly formed second line Brind’Amour has established. Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula, and Martin Necas kept the pressure on the Devils and continued the offensive onslaught, piggybacking off the success of the first line featuring Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho, and Teuvo Teravainen.

Niederreiter had only one point in his last six games and only three points in his last 16 games. Not only did Niederreiter look confident offensively tonight, but he found his name on the scoresheet twice tonight, with a one-timer goal from a Fleury setup and an assist on Joel Edmundson’s breakaway goal. This line may be the cure to Niederreiter’s point droughts, it’s worth a try.

Both Haula and Niederreiter had a +3 in the game against the Devils, while Necas still had a +2. When this line was on the ice, good things happened. While Necas has looked good in almost all his games so far, he seems to grow stronger more and more by the day, but this line seems to accelerate his growth. He seemed to be on a different level in the game, you don’t need to change something that’s not broken.

The main problem in the last handful of games for the Hurricanes have been lack of possession and playing way too much in their own zone. Against the New Jersey Devils, they had the upper hand and lots of credit can be given to the fore-checking and puck-moving ability of the first and newly formed second line.

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Lots of blame have been placed on goaltending and defense of this team, but you can’t expect your defense and goalies to bail your offense out every time, if you’re playing in your own end the entire game. With more time to breathe and play in all three zones, the Hurricanes defense can make line changes and goalies don’t have to be on their feet every night.

We can’t just assume that Rod Brind’Amour will roll the same first two lines out against the Oilers, but we can only advise that it would be a wise decision. It’s February and it’s grind time to see whether this team is going to buy or sell at the trade deadline, for preparation of the Stanley Cup Playoffs or move on to the next season.

Every win is needed and this new second line may be a huge contributing factor in that push, if used properly.

Question for Cardiac Cane Readers: Is this second line for real? Will their newly found chemistry last?