New York Rangers: A look at the lineup after three games

New York Rangers coach David Quinn is still seeking his first win as an NHL head coach. Unsurprisingly, he’s tinkered with his lineup after every game. However, these changes are not cause for concern yet.

The New York Rangers remain winless after a loss in a spirited shootout to the Carolina Hurricanes, an 8-5 loss that saw the team’s promising offense break out.

The game was also a notable in the young season as David Quinn put his lines in a blender in the second half of a back-to-back.

Vladislav Namestnikov was reinserted into the lineup, swapping with Cody McLeod again. Somewhat surprisingly, Tony DeAngelo played his first game of the season, in for Vinni Lettieri.

The changes seemed to invigorate the lineup and both players played key roles in goal scoring plays. Namestnikov tallied an assist on the Rangers’ second goal while DeAngelo notched the primary helpers on the team’s critical fourth and fifth goals.

Some changes were definitely due to the short turnaround between Saturday night’s game in Buffalo and the afternoon affair in Raleigh, such as Alexandar Georgiev making his first start of the year. Then after the loss on Sunday, the lines were shuffled yet again.

For a rebuilding team, each decision has to be viewed through two lenses. The first is if the move is beneficial towards the development of the team’s prospects. The other is if the move is beneficial towards the team winning hockey games. Ideally, these two views align.

We’re going to take a look at what the Rangers have done so far with their lineup for both better and worse.

The forwards

The top line the first two games of the season was comprised of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich. If I had it my way, this line would be written in ink on every Rangers’ lineup card.

The first line should be constructed with Buchnevich’s development in mind. The Rangers need to determine if Pavel Buchnevich is a first line winger and the only way to find out is to play him as a first line winger.

However, for the third game in Carolina, Buchnevich was dropped to both the second line and second powerplay unit. He still tallied a goal, the team’s first on the powerplay, off an aformentioned DeAngelo assist.

Buchnevich then, in turn, played primarily with Jimmy Vesey and Kevin Hayes, who have been some of the best Rangers’ forwards thus far. Vesey is likely the best of the bunch after a lackluster preseason performance, which Quinn attributed to confidence issues.

With the lines in “no specific order” per Brett Cyrgalis of the NYPost, Buchnevich now finds himself back on the team’s presumptive top line with Zibanejad and Jesper Fast. Meanwhile, Vesey and Hayes now have Ryan Spooner on their wing. Returning to this line from last year makes sense as Spooner has been invisible through the team’s first three games.

Similarly, it feels like the move to promote Fast to the line against Carolina was to spark a struggling Zibanejad. Fast staying and Quinn rotating Buchnevich back in for Kreider seems to be the next logical step in this effort.

Kreider then lines up alongside Brett Howden who has been given increased responsibility, starting with the game in Carolina, and another struggling forward, Mats Zuccarello.

Howden has had an up and down start to his NHL career. Despite having different linemates in every game, a trend that looks to continue, he has already tallied a goal and an assist. Against the Hurricanes, Howden was also promoted to the top powerplay unit but did a little of everything, including making a nifty setup on Kreider’s first goal.

With Howden, the Rangers are doing exactly what they should for his development. There was some trepidation that Howden would not receive adequate ice-time in New York after making the team out of camp. The Rangers may very well decide to send him to Hartford after nine games. The only way to make that determination is to evaluate him in as many scenarios as they can, which they have done so far.

On the other end of the spectrum, Filip Chytil has seen his ice time and role diminish. He is now on the presumptive fourth line with Vladislav Namestnikov and Vinni Lettieri who have each sat for a game.

Ideally, you don’t want Howden’s development taking away ice time from other youngsters like Buchnevich and Chytil. Chytil has looked good, albeit not his usual head-turning self through three games with two assists that showcased his skills. The hope here is that this move is less about Chytil and more about giving Howden his well-earned opportunity, at least in the short term.

The defense

On Sunday, the biggest news in RangersTown on defense was the addition of DeAngelo into the lineup. As mentioned, the offensively-minded blueliner continued where he left off in training camp and further demonstrated that he deserves to play by collecting his first two points of the season. Defensively, he still got into a few adventures in his own zone.

By Tuesday, the news he remained in the lineup was a footnote next to the bombshell that Kevin Shattenkirk is poised to be a healthy scratch for the team’s fourth game. Shattenkirk, by his own admission, has not played his best through three games. This culminated in him playing a team-low 7:29 TOI against Carolina, with a significant chunk, 3:22, on the powerplay.

This seems like another move made by the organization to put their money where their mouth is in terms of player accountability. They started last season with the message they delivered to Brendan Smith.

It doesn’t surprise me that Shattenkirk is the whipping boy, so to speak, due to his familiarity with Quinn. As noted in the article above again by Cyrgalis, Quinn once scratched Shattenkirk when they were both in the AHL even though Shattenkirk previously played for Quinn for two seasons at Boston University.

Despite playing worse than Shattenkirk, it seems unlikely that the team would scratch either newly acquired Adam McQuaid or permanent alternate captain Marc Staal anytime soon.

Brady Skjei has been the team’s best defenseman despite being chained to yet another anchor in McQuaid. Skjei is not the only Rangers’ defender who is free of miscue, however, but pairing him with McQuaid does him nor the organization favors in determining how high his ceiling is. It is refreshing to see Skjei joining or leading the rush however, a trend that needs to continue.

Pionk has played as advertised but I’m excited to see him away from Staal, now with Smith. Staal is certainly not helping Pionk’s development with his on-ice play, again making it difficult for the team to accurately evaluate him. Smith has not been the force he was in training camp either but has performed as expected, steady defense and prudent offense.

Unfortunately, this puts Staal with DeAngelo, Similar to playing him with Pionk, the Rangers are doing DeAngelo no favors in pairing him with Staal. In this make-it-or-break-it year for DeAngelo, he needs to be put into a better position to succeed.

The Goaltending

The rumors of Henrik Lundqvist’s demise have been greatly exaggerated as his numbers through two starts are a 0.933 SV% with a 2.05 GAA. The traditionally slow starter has, thus far, proven he still has plenty left in the tank.

Georgiev on the other hand, was not good in his lone start against Carolina but also not as bad as his abysmal 0.821 SV% and 7.24 GAA would lead you to believe. Inconsistency in young players, goaltenders especially, is far from unusual and playing behind a rebuilding team can further exacerbate this. Georgiev earned the backup role and one game is not enough to prove he is not up to the task.

As the team was all too familiar with under Alain Vigneault, lineup changes both small and large are common after a loss. The difference is that Vigneault’s only objective with those changes was to win games. Quinn is charged with both deploying a competitive team while balancing its development. Changes like these are not perfect nor cause for panic, but a natural part of the rebuilding process as Quinn learns more about the team while they learn more about themselves and each other.