Jimmy Vesey-Vincent Trocheck-Barclay Goodrow line doing the dirty work for Rangers

TORONTO — Gerard Gallant has said, over and over, that he doesn’t want to change his forward lines as often as he has this season. He does it, he says, because when he watches his team play and doesn’t like what he sees, he feels the need to do something, anything, to try and make things better.

So even though he wasn’t crazy about what he saw from his team in its win Monday over Florida, Gallant kept his top three lines together for Wednesday’s game against the Maple Leafs, the Rangers’ second-to-last game before the bye week/All-Star break.

“It's never perfect,’’ Gallant said at Wednesday’s morning skate at Scotiabank Arena. “We won the game [against Florida] 6-2, and we didn't play a great game. But overall, let's just keep it going. Keep playing well, keep working hard together, and good things will happen.’’

One of the positives that came out of the lines Gallant used was when the second line of left wing Jimmy Vesey, center Vincent Trocheck and right wing Barclay Goodrow scored one of those dirty, crash-the-net kind of goals that coaches love late in the second period. The Rangers led 2-1 at the time and pulled away in the third period.

“When you win hockey games in this league, you need some of those [types of] goals,’’ Gallant said. “It's not always just skilled goals, the seam passes and that. When you’ve got guys going to the net and making it tough on goaltenders, that's what you need from your group.’’

That kind of goal is something the Vesey-Trocheck-Goodrow line can provide on a team that features so many skilled, east-west type players. The bonus is that all three are solid defensive players, which makes them a group Gallant can match against other teams’ top lines.

“I think it's a good line,’’ said Vesey, who scored the goal against Florida. “Three guys that play kind of north-south, and think we can hopefully be a good line for us, in terms of, you can play us against a top line and we can try to be a shutdown line, or, if we’re going against the third line of the other team, I think we can be a tough matchup and provide offense.’’

Gallant was asked whether he envisioned possibly using Vesey-Trocheck-Goodrow as a checking line, a la the Nino Niederreiter-Jordan Staal-Jesper Fast line that gave the Rangers’ Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Frank Vatrano line fits in the playoffs last year. Gallant liked the comparison but didn’t like the term “checking line.’’

“I call a checking line good players that can score goals too,’’ Gallant said. “I don't think we have a line that we're just going to put out there and say, 'You guys are going to check these guys.' . . . For me, I think our players like Goodrow and Vesey can score goals too. And anytime you're checking guys, you're just paying more attention to them, that's all.

“Like, if they play against the first line [against Toronto], I don't want to be defending in our zone the whole night,’’ he said. “I want them to be aggressive. I want them to forecheck. But be aware who's on the ice against you.’’

The way Goodrow sees it, it’s all about getting the better of the matchup.

“I don't think we take many chances with the puck,’’ Goodrow said. “We like to play hard. I feel like those are those things you do when you're playing against top lines anyway . . . We all kill penalties. We all know how to look after the ‘D’ zone.

“We look at it as a challenge if we are playing against the top line, and we take a lot of pride in shutting them down and winning that matchup for the night.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.