New York Rangers: Three thoughts after three games

2. Quinn still working out what he’s got

New York Rangers Head Coach David Quinn won over the fanbase pretty quickly upon taking the job last year thanks to his honest approach, his ability to nurture young talent and his habit of benching players if they were not performing even if they were considered a star.

As a result, it was easy to feel for him in certain instances last year when his young roster just couldn’t get the job done, and a lack of real starpower was evident on more than one occasion.

So, when the front office decided to go out and make a host of aggressive moves during the off-season by recruiting elite stars such as Artemi Panarin and Jacob Trouba, you couldn’t help but be pleased for Quinn.

He was going to have some genuine weapons with which to play with in his second year behind the bench, not to mention being given the opportunity to nurture and develop a generational talent in No. 2 pick Kaapo Kakko.

But, after three games, it is fair to suggest that David Quinn hasn’t quite worked out his best line combinations yet, and that is perfectly normal this early in of course.

Filip Chytil was sent down to the AHL after originally being primed to become the second line center for the Rangers, while Russian stud Vitali Kravtsov was also sent down despite the expectation that he would begin the year in the big leagues.

That left Quinn with some holes to fill on his roster and he had further tweaking to do following the decision to trade Vladislav Namestnikov to the Ottawa Senators last week, which was the right one by the way.

Quinn settled on his top line early on and the trio of Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich have certainly meshed perfectly with a combined total of 14 points so far, although it is the rest of the forward unit that needs work.

The coaching staff will need to decide whether to bump Kaapo Kakko up to the top line and the top unit of the power play, while the search for a bona fide second line center is still clearly ongoing.

And then there is the blueline. After starting the year with Jacob Trouba and Brady Skjei as his top defensive pairing, Quinn quickly broke that up in the wake of the Winnipeg Jets game in order to spread the balance of power.

It was a surprise given that Trouba and Skjei looked a solid fit, but understandable when you consider that Adam Fox, in his rookie year, and Libor Hajek didn’t look entirely comfortable together.

However, a clear mistake was made on Saturday when Quinn opted to not match Trouba up against arguably the best player in the NHL in Connor McDavid, instead sending out Tony DeAngelo and Marc Staal against Edmonton’s top line.

And, let’s be clear here, if Trouba isn’t the top shutdown defenseman against Taylor Hall and the New Jersey Devils on Thursday, and Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Friday, then the Rangers are asking for trouble.

Of course, getting the right line combinations is a fine balancing act but you are paying Trouba $8,000,000 a year for a reason and he should be paired with Skjei in a shutdown role on that top defensive pairing.

Again, we are only three games in and sometimes these things have a way of working themselves out, but it is clear that David Quinn is still getting used to some of the luxuries he has at his disposal and it will be fascinating to see how that plays out over the next handful of games.