Peter Laviolette inherited well over 2,500 minutes of analytics as it pertained to each of the Rangers’ top-two defense pairings when the now second-year bench boss first took over the team ahead of the 2023-24 season.
To be more precise, there was 3,370:49 of TOI for Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox from 2019-’23, and 2,929:33 TOI for K’Andre Miller and Jacob Trouba from 2020-’23.
Laviolette said he was in no way married to the lineup configuration — both forwards and defensemen — that had dominated two of his predecessors’ tenures in New York.
And yet, that’s exactly what he deployed in his first game behind the Rangers bench on Oct. 12, 2023 in Buffalo — not only sticking to the Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad duo on the top line and the framework of the forward group, but also keeping the recurring top five defensemen in the same alignment as they had been.
They’ve stayed that way for a majority of Laviolette’s 109 games at the helm of the Rangers, who were forced to start the 2024-25 season with a different defensive unit due to Ryan Lindgren opening the season on injured reserve.
So when it became apparent that the lineup had grown stale in recent days, Laviolette may have thrown the forward lines blueprint out the window, but he turned back to the defense pairs that have served as a foundation for this Rangers team for years.
“That was actually the easiest of the moves, if I’m being honest,” Laviolette said of his defense changes after practice on Monday at MSG Training Center. “Because there was so much history from the past. That was just to change it up because I don’t like the way we had gone. I was clear about it, three of the last four, I just don’t think we were on top of our game.
“We made a change and went back to something that’s a little bit familiar with the back end. The bigger change, obviously, was up front, the forwards, where there had been so much stability. Moving the back end, they probably didn’t blink an eye, either.”
It’s true, if anything, all the defensemen had to do was simply fall back into what could be described as their comfort zone.
Lindgren has not only spent most of his Rangers tenure alongside Fox, but the 26-year-old has been skating with him since they were teenagers in the U.S. National Development Team Program.
Miller has spent 3,944:36 of his 6,517:47 minutes of total NHL ice time on the left side of Trouba.
“Easy,” Miller told The Post of the switch after practice. “We’ve had a couple games together, nothing new. I think that’s the great part about our team, just the depth we have. I think all four lines, pretty much interchangeable, same with our D. You see it firsthand with this right now.”
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The Rangers have not been satisfied with their defensive efforts of late.
Goalie Igor Shesterkin has had to come up with 116 saves on 123 shots in the last three games.
It was clear that the Miller-Fox and Lindgren-Trouba pairings weren’t holding up against heavier teams like the Capitals and Senators.
The good thing was that with one little switch, the Rangers defense was back to a familiar state — one that has largely been reliable for most of the organization’s championship window.
