Rangers' Kid Line gets a chance to rebound after tough game
DETROIT, MICHIGAN - NOVEMBER 10: Kaapo Kakko #24 of the New York Rangers tries to control the puck in front of Olli Maatta #2 of the Detroit Red Wings during the first period at Little Caesars Arena on November 10, 2022 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) Credit: Getty Images/Gregory Shamus
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The kids aren’t all right.
Well, they weren’t Thursday in Seattle, anyway.
In the Rangers’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday in the opening game of their four-game West Coast trip, the Kid Line of Alexis Lafrenière, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko struggled badly.
The trio was a combined minus-5 and had a combined two shots on goal. According to the analytics site Natural Stat Trick, the Rangers had only one scoring chance while the three were on together compared with six against.
“Last game was very bad,’’ Kakko said after Saturday’s morning skate at SAP Center, where the Rangers prepared to play the Sharks in the second game of the trip. “And before that, OK. So I think we need to be better. We all know that.’’
But coach Gerard Gallant, still searching for a consistent performance from his team, decided to stay with the same lines Saturday that he used Thursday in Seattle. That included keeping the Kid Line together for a fifth straight game.
“They weren’t good last game, so they’ll get a chance to rebound [against the Sharks],’’ Gallant said. “You move past it. You know, it’s one game. They were frustrated. They didn’t play a whole lot of minutes, and [when] you don’t play well, you don’t play as much. But you know, we expect a lot more from them . . . They expect a lot more from themselves.’’
During the playoffs last spring, the Kid Line was the Rangers’ most dynamic as the Blueshirts advanced to the Eastern Conference Final, and the promise they showed made the team feel as though the youngsters would make up for the departures of trade deadline rental acquisitions Andrew Copp, Frank Vatrano and Tyler Motte.
In training camp, Gallant started out with Lafrenière, 21, Kakko, 21, and Chytil, 23, together, but very quickly, he moved Kakko up to the top line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. After Vitali Kravtsov got hurt in the season opener, he moved Lafrenière to the second line with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck.
Both Kakko and Lafreniere looked good playing among the top-six forwards, but when Kravtsov, who has struggled in the early season with injuries, got healthy, Gallant moved him back on the second line. Then, when the team needed a spark, he put Jimmy Vesey on the first line and put the Kid Line back together.
But it hasn’t seemed to work.
“I feel like we can do better,’’ Lafrenière said. “Last game wasn’t good for us. But I think we played good in the past together, so I think we can, we can play good. We have good chemistry.’’
Kakko, in particular, seems to have lost some juice since moving off the top line. He entered Saturday’s game with three goals and four assists in 18 games but had only one assist in his previous five games. It’s a slide that has come after he got off to a great start.
“I think, the first games of the season, like the first 10 games, I’ve never played that good,’’ he said. “I played very good. I got a lot of chances every game, and was feeling very confident. But I don’t know right now. Now, not that good. So I don’t know, I have to try to get that back.’’
Notes & quotes: Gallant made one lineup change, inserting D Zac Jones in place of Libor Hajek. Hajek had played six straight games and Jones had sat out four straight . . . F Ryan Reaves was scratched for the third straight game and the sixth in the last seven. Kravtsov was a healthy scratch for the second straight game after missing two games because of an infected tooth.
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.
