The New York Rangers are in full experimentation mode as camp begins for real
After a first full days of physical exams and testing, the New York Rangers will take the ice Monday for the first time. There are some interesting moves being made during the early practice sessions with only ten days for experimentation.
The good news is the team is on the ice and from the numerous tweets from the Rangers, the players look pretty happy.
Bread is all of us. pic.twitter.com/eOJ1UBJ0P6
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 4, 2021
Experimentation
Vince Mercogliano tweeted out the lineups for the two groups the roster has been broken into.
And here’s the lineup for Group A. Remember, no Mika today. #NYR pic.twitter.com/eYiaAUwXzO
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) January 4, 2021
Interesting to note is that they are mixing up the forward lines. Morgan Barron is playing right wing though he is a natural center. It’s on defense where there is some experimentation. They are trying Tony DeAngelo on the left side, paired with Jacob Trouba and they have left shot Tony Bitetto playing the right side.
Here’s the line chart for Group B. #NYR pic.twitter.com/bTHdC3HUJV
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) January 4, 2021
In Group B, they are wasting no time in putting Kaapo Kakko with Ryan Strome and Artemi Panarin while Filip Chytil is centering a line with Alexis Lafrenière and Julien Gauthier. The Group B defense corps features six left shot defensemen with Adam Fox the only righty. He is paired with his usual partner, Ryan Lindgren.
While these are very preliminary lineups and the team is still missing Mika Zibanejad and prospect Justin Richards, seeing Kakko on the right side of the Strome line and DeAngelo on the left side of the defense is an indication that the team is considering those lineup changes.
A partner for Trouba on the left side and a replacement for Jesper Fast were two of the biggest questions facing the Rangers going into this training camp.