Kovacevic: Who needs a fourth line?

The curious case of Jim Rutherford having pursued Matt Cullen right through the NHL trade deadline, even after acquiring Derick Brassard, now makes a little more sense: The Penguins clearly coveted having multiple centers who can slide to wing when needed.

Which just might render their fourth line moot and, thus, change the very way they roll.

So yeah, sorry for straying a bit from the actual outcome Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena, that rather routine 3-2 loss to the better-than-anyone-thought Devils. But I found myself far more intrigued with what the welcome addition of Brassard would do for the forward depth and what impact that might have on lines, chemistry and all else headed toward the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And man, I was plenty surprised. Because, as it turned out, if Rutherford had managed to bring back Cullen from Minnesota, he'd have snapped right into this type of rotation.

Let's start with this: The new fourth line of Tom Kuhnhackl, Riley Sheahan and Carter Rowney, left to right, took all of seven even-strength shifts together.

That, my friends, isn't a fourth line. That's a Guardian Storage rent-a-space for penalty-killers and faceoff aces and nothing more. Kuhnhackl and Rowney would each log seven total shifts and four-plus minutes, while Sheahan, fascinatingly, doubled those shifts and the ice time -- 9:47 -- by rotating through the first and third lines.

I asked Mike Sullivan about this afterward ...

... and, as you could hear, he pointed primarily to wanting to keep Sheahan active. Which is both fair and smart, especially when Sheahan was sent over the boards to supplant the easily-supplantable-of-late Sheary alongside Brassard and Phil Kessel. Sheahan didn't deserve to get demoted, and this way, he isn't.

But the overall picture strongly suggests something more in play.

Rowney was moved from center to right wing for the first time all season, and he remained in the lineup at the expense of promising rookie Zach Aston-Reese. That wasn't an accident. Sullivan and Jacques Martin used him on the PK and had him ready for right-handed defensive-zone faceoffs.

Kuhnhackl returned after missing a month to a lower-body injury and, of course, was hobbled by putting himself in front of another shot in the first period. That's what he does. He's a PK specialist, really, and he'll now be the team's best shot-blocker with Ian Cole gone.

That's where we get warmer, I think, based on what I was told after the game in the locker room, toward the real plan: Set this team up so that the top three lines can rotate heavily, while ensuring that the dirty work is left to those who do it best.

I like it. A lot.

The opponent on this night has been among the many NHL teams shortening their benches to benefit their stars. The Devils deployed Taylor Hall for only 19:06 Tuesday, but that's soared as high as 26, 27 minutes at various points, as their coach, John Hynes, has unapologetically explained is "because we've got a thoroughbred here." They really do, too, as Hall illustrated again with his goal, assist and general omnipresence with the puck.

But hey, the Penguins have one, two, three players better than Hall -- obviously Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kessel -- and thanks to Brassard's arrival, they've now got them split up on three evenly distributed lines, just the way Sullivan likes.

So why not get more from those three?

All that cumulative playoff fatigue?

Hey, maybe, but they've pushed through this far, and none of the three has come close to fading yet. Thus, there's no demonstrable reason to not try it. Simply rotate Sheahan and the other forwards around the stars, make sure the supporting cast is earning some power plays for them, killing penalties for them, then just getting out of their way.

It's planning for playoffs in February. It's what winners do.

• This also explains, by the way, what would have made Ryan Reaves expendable in management's eyes. He wasn't going to see the ice on a fourth line that barely exists, and he wasn't on the PK in the first place.

Have I mentioned that I like all of this?

• OK, not all of it. If the move is toward three strong lines -- with a sprinkling of Sheahan -- then Aston-Reese has to be part of that. The kid had four goals in his past six games and was "playing all 200 feet," to borrow Sullivan's own terminology, and didn't deserve to be scratched.

In spoken words ...

• Matt Hunwick wasn't terrible. Jamie Oleksiak deserves better. I've got much more on that on a separate file.

• Crosby freaked on the refs after the game ended. And he should have. I've got that on another separate file.

• The Devils are every bit as real as their 33-22-8 record suggests, and that's to the inestimable credit of Ray Shero.

I was rough on his work in the months leading to his firing in Pittsburgh, and I'll stand by that -- what followed wasn't exactly bad -- but he's built up the New Jersey roster into one that's young, smart, skilled and fast, fast, fast. There isn't a team in the NHL that's attacked the Penguins' blue line with greater speed than this group.

And to add Michael Grabner, this game's most visibly speedy player, to that?

Wow.

"We just keep getting chances," Stefan Noesen, author of the winning goal in the third period, would say afterward. And his side pumped 38 shots, just like the Penguins. "I mean, Grabs had two or three breakaways. It's great to see him helping the team already."

The Devils are definitely back. Just nothing like before.

• I get why Casey DeSmith started. I also get that Tristan Jarry's got a ton more talent and, if Matt Murray isn't mended by Thursday, he needs to get the nod in Boston.

Not just because of New Jersey's ultra-lame winner, but still ...

... that’s not a goal that a National Hockey League goaltender gives up. Sorry to sound mean. Stand up and man the short-side post. DeSmith was scrambling all over creation to find a puck, then didn’t get back up once he found it. Doesn't matter that it was deftly deflected by Noesen. Not if he's up.

I asked DeSmith, since he also started in that Newark debacle last month, if the opponent's speed -- which has to be like watching 'The Flash' on fast-forward to an AHL goaltender -- has made an impression:

• Sullivan confessed on the recent trip to Dallas and St. Louis that he and his staff will call for coach's review on a goal just because the NHL's guidelines on goaltender interference are so convoluted now that it's worth the risk.

The league can't do anything about that in mid-season, but that's got to change. Meaning both the clarity on the infraction and the coaches' ability to put forth frivolous challenges like the one by New Jersey's John Hynes on Crosby's goal:

All the captain did was absolutely everything to avoid Keith Kinkaid ... and succeeded. There was a referee standing right there, too, and that referee, at his discretion, should be able to tell the coach to go pound salt when seeking a review.

• There were grown-up hockey executives, men who have seen a lot, telling me in the press box they've never seen Evgeni Malkin perform at his current level, and that followed this display in the first period:

Malkin's got 22 goals in as many games and, even though he didn't score in this one -- despite five shots and seven attempts -- he was still magnificent. Dangerous with nearly every touch.

• Speaking of magnificent, did you catch Kris Letang going full Mario Lemieux by allowing that Jake Guentzel cross-ice pass to slip through to Brian Dumoulin?

That ultimately set up Crosby's rebound goal in the first period, and I know, it wasn't the caliber of Mario's still-surreal awareness in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics to allow that Chris Pronger pass to slide through his legs and onto the eager blade of Paul Kariya ...

... in a magical moment that was commemorated and captured earlier this month by our cartoonist Rob Ullman:

Let's just say, without name-dropping here, that I'd find out later that Letang's version was appreciated by the ultimate authority on the subject.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY