Colin Stephenson: Why coach Mike Sullivan felt the need to tweak the Rangers' forward lines
Rangers center J.T. Miller chases the puck against the Vancouver Canucks in the first period of an NHL game at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
In the aftermath of Igor Shesterkin’s season-ending injury Friday, the message from the Rangers over the weekend was that they are off to a good start and have to keep that going.
Everyone made a point of saying the team has confidence in and will rally around young Dylan Garand, who made 19 saves in the Rangers’ 6-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks at the Garden on Sunday. They also said that fundamentally, there’s no need to change anything.
“We feel really confident in the way we’ve been playing, and we feel like it doesn’t matter who’s in net,” J.T. Miller said at the team’s optional skate on Sunday morning. “We’re going to bring the same game we try to bring with our speed and pace and physicality.”
However, even with his team 4-2-0 entering Sunday, coach Mike Sullivan made changes to the lineup. Some have been forced by injury, such as calling up 20-year-old Cole Beaudoin from Hartford to fill in as the fourth-line center with Joe Veleno out long-term, but some have been because the coach is searching for the formula to try to keep the strong start going.
Sullivan has broken up the trio of Oliver Bjorkstrand, Miller and Pavel Dorofeyev, whom he had identified as his best line at the start of the season.
He tweaked the line in the third period of the game against Detroit, bumping up fourth-line energy guy Tye Kartye into Bjorkstrand’s spot. Then, after Alexis Lafreniere scored four goals in two games — and linemate Gabe Perreault had two goals and four points during the Rangers’ four-game winning streak — Sullivan put Lafreniere with Kartye and Miller and put Dorofeyev with Perreault and Mika Zibanejad on Sunday.
Why would he mess with two lines that appeared to be playing well together?
“The analytical numbers are fairly strong with both lines,” Sullivan said Saturday. “[But] the top six have scored five five-on-five goals in six games. Ultimately, we’d like to see them produce a few more five-on-five goals to help us win consistently. And so, I said to you [media] guys at training camp that I would anticipate us probably at some point exploring different options.
“Nothing is etched in stone. We can always tweak and adjust, depending on what we see. But . . . we have some options.”
The thing is, with the unproven Garand (five career NHL games before Sunday) thrust into the role of No. 1 goalie for the foreseeable future, the Rangers not only have to play even tighter defense but have to score more, too.
Getting Dorofeyev going would be massive to help in that endeavor.
Dorofeyev, who had 35 and 37 goals the previous two seasons for the Vegas Golden Knights before the Rangers traded for him over the summer, had only one in his first six games with the Rangers this season. So after keeping Dorofeyev on Miller’s line since Day 1 of training camp, Sullivan decided it was time to try something different.
“Both Mika and Gabe have the ability to see the ice, and if they get him the puck, potentially he could score goals for us,’’ Sullivan said. “But this is obviously a work in progress, and we thought that it’s the right time to make a tweak.”
“He’s a goal-scorer. He’s a shooter,’’ Zibanejad said of Dorofeyev, whose 19 shots on goal entering Sunday led the team. “And with Gabe’s passing ability, I think we get a different type of, I guess, a threat in that sense and a pure shooter.
The changes produced three five-on-five goals from the top six on Sunday, with Kartye getting two and Perreault one. Lafreniere also scored, but that goal — which was assisted by Perreault and Zibanejad — came on the power play.
Sullivan said he liked the new look of his top six forwards. “We made this tweak. It seemed to work tonight,’’ he said. “We scored some five-on-five goals, which was the objective. We’ll watch it moving forward. But you know, as I say to you guys all the time, it’s always etched in pencil.”
Sullivan was asked Saturday if he worried that moving the red-hot Lafreniere might cool him off. He said he thought Lafreniere and Miller might prove to be “complementary’’ to one another, and added, “I think Laf will produce no matter where we put him.”
Beaudoin back from Hartford. Beaudoin, who was sent down to Hartford Saturday as part of salary cap maneuvering, was back with the Rangers after playing one shift for the Wolf Pack on Saturday night. Juuso Parssinen, who was called up, on paper, when Beaudoin was sent down, was returned to Hartford . . . Spencer Martin was called up from Hartford to serve as backup to Garand.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
