Hurricanes Need to Adjust Lines After Teravainen Injury
By Glenn Brewer
The Carolina Hurricanes had a bounce-back victory last night against the Edmonton Oilers after losing to the Florida Panthers. The offense woke up and showed signs of life as they were provided with great goaltending.
One player that showed signs of breaking out was Teuvo Teravainen.
Teravainen has been off to a slow start on the top line with linemates Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov.
Goalless through 14 games, Teravainen picked up two assists last night to bring his total to seven for the season.
Injury
Unfortunately for Teravainen and the Hurricanes, he left the game early with an injury and did not return.
Suffering an upper-body injury, Teravainen’s injury was not only bad enough to remove him for the remainder of the game, but he will miss at least the next two games.
The Hurricanes head on the road to face the Colorado Avalanche and Chicago Blackhawks.
Despite the lack of production from Teravainen after producing 65 points last season, his presence will be missed. Andrei Svechnikov is off to a career start and surely will miss the playmaking ability of Teravainen.
This will also create a hole in the power play, which moved the puck extremely well last night, even if no goals were to show.
Replacement
Jack Drury is already up with the club, causing a rotation on the fourth line with Paul Stastny and Derek Stepan.
The obvious move is sliding Stepan back into the lineup, but where do the lines fall?
Rod Brind’Amour has begun shaking up the lines to generate more scoring but seems to always fall back into the normal combinations throughout the contest.
Despite the scoring surge against Edmonton, this may be an opportunity For Brind’Amour to shake things up more.
Whenever someone goes down with an injury, it creates an opportunity for someone else to step up.
It makes sense for Brind’Amour to keep the other lines intact and not have a ripple effect from one injury, but who gets the opportunity with Aho and Svechnikov?
Stefan Noesen has had a strong start to his season with 2 goals and 4 assists.
The former first-round draft pick in 2011 may finally be coming into his own in Carolina. This could be the opportunity that he needs to elevate his game.
He would bring a gritty element to the line that should create more space for the other line mates. His presence and battle level in front of the net will clean up some scoring chances created.
For a short-term option, this would be a benefit to the team and a bigger benefit to the player.