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The one obvious line combination Mike Sullivan has yet to try this season is exactly where the veteran head coach started Friday as the Rangers returned to practice.
Pavel Dorofeyev moved up to the top line with Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière and Sullivan bumped Gabe Perreault to the third unit in the latest attempt to find the best fit for the newcomer in the Rangers lineup.
It’s been a season-long discussion of where to slot the Russian wing, who can’t seem to shake the disconnect that has limited him to three goals in 14 games while sitting among the NHL’s leaders in posts hit.
“We’re trying to find a way to capture Pav’s best game,” Sullivan said of the switch. “And so we’re moving people around based on a number of different objectives. No. 1, trying to help Pav capture his best game, create some balance through our lineup. I don’t think Mika’s line has been as effective most recently as it was earlier in the year. I was reluctant to move people earlier in the year because we thought that line was playing extremely well.
“We just think the timing was right at this point to try to make this adjustment. I think it’s the one combination that we haven’t gone to yet with respect to Pav inside the top six.”
Bouncing between the top two lines through the first 13 games of the season, Dorofeyev fell out of the top six for the 6-3 loss to the Kings on Monday. While Dorofeyev logged a few shifts on the third line previously, Sullivan alluded to it not being a long-term solution for a player whose skill set belongs in the top six.
The abundance of high-quality scoring chances Dorofeyev has seen tempers concerns, but his lack of production has made an already difficult situation for the Rangers even more so.
Of his three goals, the most meaningful made it a 2-0 game over the Lightning in the Rangers’ home opener. Another came in the third period of a 6-0 game against the Devils, while his most recent cut the Blueshirts’ deficit to one with less than five minutes left in regulation.
Despite the team’s defensive slippage, however, the Dorofeyev-for-Perreault swap was the only change Sullivan made.
Sullivan appears to be sticking with his original pairs for now, primarily due to Vladislav Gavrikov and Adam Fox picking up right where they left off last season. The drop-off in play from Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson is what has Sullivan contemplating potential changes down the line.
Given how well the second pair played the first handful of games, Sullivan is not ready to give up on it just yet.
“It’s a conversation that we’ve had here over the last couple of days,” Sullivan said of the defense. “This isn’t etched in stone by any stretch. We’ve really liked the Vladdy-Foxy pair for a long time. We think that’s a strong No. 1 D-pair for us. They play important minutes. They have complementary skill sets. We’ve liked that pair. Based on that, do we start there and keep that pair together? How do we juggle the next group to try to create the balance of what we need? I think a lot of that is going to depend on performance, quite honestly. We’ll see how it goes, but it’s not etched in stone by any stretch.
“We have hard evidence that [Durzi-Pettersson] was a very effective pair for us. These guys, they’re great kids. They care a lot. They’re enthusiastic with how they approach the game. No one wants to be more effective than them. They had a significant amount of games where they were a very effective pair for us. Can we find a way to recapture that? If we can, it would be great. If we can’t, we’ll continue to explore.”
