Peter Laviolette hasn’t been one to completely blow up his forward lines and defensive pairings during his first two seasons coaching the Rangers, so Saturday’s practice configurations amounted to a significant shake-up.
Laviolette clearly hasn’t been happy with the team’s play over the past week, even with Friday’s 2-1 win on the back of goalie Igor Shesterkin lifting the Blueshirts to a 7-2-1 record over their first 10 games entering Sunday’s home matinee against the Islanders.
Thus, Laviolette broke up his top-line pairing of Chris Kreider and slow-starting center Mika Zibanejad, with the latter skating between Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere.
Kreider was dropped to a unit alongside Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, with second-line center Vincent Trocheck flanked by wingers Will Cuylle and Reilly Smith.
“Just to give it a change. That’s three out of four games where I don’t think we’ve taken it the way we want to offensively, so we gave it a different look in practice,” Laviolette said after the workout in Tarrytown. “Again, if we went and dominated [Friday’s] game. … We won the game, that’s good. We’re in the game-winning business.
“But I didn’t really like the way we played [Friday] night. I thought that we need to play better than what we’re playing right now. We can’t rely on Shesty the way we’re relying on him right now. We need to play a better team game.”
Despite their strong record, Laviolette lamented the Rangers getting outshot 41-18 Friday night, one game after the Capitals held a 46-19 shot advantage in a 5-3 victory.
Thus, he also reunited last year’s primary defensive pairings in Saturday’s practice — Adam Fox with Ryan Lindgren, and Jacob Trouba with K’Andre Miller.
“There’s a lot of familiarity, as well, guys who’ve played together before,” Laviolette said. “These pairs have had plenty of experience together in the past, so we wanted to look at it today and then we’ll make decisions.”
Panarin (a team-best 16 points) and Lafreniere (five goals, five assists, 10 points) have been the Rangers’ two most productive forwards to start the season, so perhaps aligning them with Zibanejad (2-5-7) will spark him offensively.
“I told them I’m nervous, new kid on the block,” Zibanejad said jokingly. “No, I’ll try to play my game, but obviously trying to adapt a little, too, because they’re used to each other and obviously used to Troch’. That line has been unbelievable for us.”
Indeed, Panarin led the team with 49 goals and 120 points last season, while Lafreniere finally had a breakout season with career highs of 28 goals and 57 points to earn the former No. 1-overall pick a seven-year contract extension worth $52.15 million.
The 31-year-old Zibanejad described his two-way Friday night as “a step in the right direction,” but he wasn’t surprised to learn of the line changes when he arrived at the practice facility.
“I don’t think I’m trying to change my game, but there’s definitely things I should or could do more of, depending on how the game goes and how we find each other and how I read off of them maybe a little bit more,” Zibanejad added. “It’ll be fun, and I’m excited. It’s a big game [Sunday], and if I get a chance to play with them, go out and play our game.”
“These things happen throughout a season. … Obviously, we’re trying to figure things out, and I’m hoping it clicks right away.”
