The New York Rangers are trying to navigate through some issues that are derailing them from what was a strong start to the season. One of them was at center once Joe Veleno suffered a long-term injury four games into the season. That forced Mike Sullivan to experiment with his forwards lines, especially to find a bottom six center.
One of his latest gambles was moving winger Will Cuylle to be their third-line center. The thing with Cuylle was that he never played center in his career, but Sullivan trusted his defensive ability to be able to fill in admirably, while sending Noah Laba to the fourth line.
As it turns out, Sullivan's gamble paid off better than anyone could have expected. The Rangers defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Tuesday night, and Cuylle more than held his own at his new position.
Will Cuylle thrived in debut as Rangers' third line center
Cuylle was lined up alongside two fo the Rangers' free agents signings in Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen. The combination of the three forwards worked out, as Natural Stat Trick revealed that the Rangers outshot the Blues 10-8 on attempts and 4-3 on shots on goal. Let's not forget, that the line did get a goal, set up by Cuylle. After stealing the puck, Cuylle connected with Bjorkstrand on a pass in front of the net to put the Rangers up 2-0.
In terms of face-offs, Cuylle more than held his own. Cuylle only received five opportunities in the face-off circle, but won three of them. A 60.0 faceoff win percentage? You can't argue with that if you are the Rangers or a fan.
After the game, Cuylle told reporters that he was nervous heading into the game, but he settled down once he got into the groove of things.
"I was excited before the game. Obviously, a challenge for me, something I've never done. Kind of felt a little nervous before the game, but after first couple shifts, settled in and just felt like myself," said Cuylle, h/t Mollie Walker of the New York Post.
Will Cuylle offered Rangers promise during forward line reshuffling
It's hard to argue with the results we saw on Tuesday against St. Louis. The third line looked extremely promising. So did the fourth line with Laba centering Matt Rempe and Jaroslav Chmelar, who had five scoring chances for, and four against when they are on the ice, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Now, we'll see if these new lines can carry that momentum into Thursday night, when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers haven't gotten off to a great start to the season, and are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games. If the forwards play as well as they did against the Blues, with Garand having a repeat performance in net, a win should be attainable, at the very least.
From there, we'll see if these forwards lines will be set in stone for the rest of the way. If so, it would eliminate the Rangers' need to trade away assets to bring in a center, especially if they need to bring in another goaltender if Joonas Korpisalo doesn't pan out.
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