Shawn Mancour
Max Domi came through for a breakout performance during his Carolina Hurricanes tenure as the Hurricanes defeated the Arizona Coyotes 5-3 in a late Monday night bout on the ice. With one goal, one assist, and five shots on goal in just under twelve minutes of ice time, Domi was productive playing alongside Jesper Fast and Nino Niederreiter on the Canes third line. It will be interesting to see what we do with the lines these last few weeks as Staal and Kotkaniemi are reinserted. I think they could maybe play it something like this:
Turbo-Aho-Jarvis
Svech-KK-Necas
Nino-Staal-Fast
Domi-Troch-Stepan
I feel like I am forgetting someone (not Jordan Martinook.. sorry bud, love you!) but I really don’t have any hockey sense or understanding. This is just the way my dumb brain thinks but give me a chance to explain.
First Line
I think Jarvis and Aho together have been really tight as of late and they have been putting points on the board. Throw in the “Finnish Connection” Tripp and the Bally folks are always talking about with Aho and Teravainen and that line seems like a no brainer. Now you could throw Svech up the lineup but I think the chemistry on top would be top notch as is.
Second Line
Moving on to that Svechnikov line, I put Kotkaniemi here because he is big and Svech is big and even Marty Necas has a little mass to him so this in my head is our “Big Line” to slam guys into the boards with a little force. As I think about it I do wonder about this line's ability for playmaking. You could consider putting Trocheck back here where he has been as of late or even possibly put Domi. Like I said though, Big Line. Go do a little roughhousing.
Third Line
Niederreiter-Staal-Fast has been one of the only things to cheer for often lately so you might think I’m crazy for considering Domi take over this center position. I think maybe it’s just the recency bias of Monday's game but he looked good on that line to me. You have to put Staal somewhere though and honest to god he makes sense here and kind of only here. It’s like having too many really good but not great players is our problem and it’s one of our strengths. It’s hard to get everyone the ice time when everyone is deserving of it. I don’t envy Mr. Brind’Amour handling the locker room though the guys seem like they are all in great spirits.
Fourth Line
Finally, Domi-Trocheck-Stepan. The only thing I can really say is I feel bad putting Troch this far down on the lineup but also I’m only making this up because it seems like what I would do on Chel. Now admittedly I am not very good at Chel so take this with a few grains of salt. Trocheck has a good shot right? Domi is a great playmaker right? So if we put them together they could potentially be unstoppable. They’ll score more goals than Putin’s KHL squad.
Also in the news for this line, Derek Stepan I think has played better than Martinook and I think he deserves that last spot on the lineup. Again let me reiterate I love Marty Parties as much as the next guy but coming down to the stretch it’s about production and I think we get better production from Stepan.
The Wind Down
At the end of the day I’m not making any decisions so why even listen to me. That’s just my thoughts on the matter. Martinook probably will play and the only one of these lines I’m confident in being correct is the third so let’s just wait and see how it all really plays out here in
the closing weeks of the season.
It was nice to get a win, it was desperately needed and I think coming home with two points and a little momentum we might have a chance to see the NHL debut of Pyotr. Fingers crossed. More to come on the Winter Soldier soon! (Please someone tell me who on Twitter came up with it first)
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