While the New York Rangers are content with getting wins and stacking points, their inconsistencies on offense were enough for coach Peter Laviolette to make changes to their forward lines.
Laviolette placed Mika Zibanejad alongside Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere, while Chris Kreider skated with Vincent Trochek and Reilly Smith. The moves worked out well for the Rangers, who will go with the same alignment and attempt to earn a third straight victory when they host the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.
Laviolette changed his lines after his team was outshot by a combined 87-37 in a 5-3 loss at Washington on Oct. 29 and a 2-1 home win over the Ottawa Senators two nights later.
Zibanejad collected three assists — his first three-point game this season — in Sunday’s 5-2 home win over the visiting New York Islanders. He set up Kreider’s short-handed goal along with a power play goal and an empty net tally by Panarin, who has a point in 10 of New York’s first 11 contests.
“It felt good,” Zibanejad said. “I thought all the lines were jelling and playing well. It seemed to work today. Everyone played their own game within the lines.”
The new alignment also helped the Rangers produce 40 shots on goal for the third time this season. In those games they outscored the Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens by a combined 18-4.
Besides the forward lines, the Rangers reverted back to pairing defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox and K’Andre Miller with Jacob Trouba. Lindgren missed time to start the season due to injury but both of New York’s top blueline pairs have extensive familiarity, as Fox and Lindgren have skated with each other for 320 games, according to Natural Stat Trick, while Miller and Trouba have been paired for 354 games.
“That was actually the easiest of moves because there was so much history in the past,” Laviolette told reporters this week.
Buffalo is 5-4-1 since opening the season with three straight losses and is coming off one of its better showings. The Sabres were outscored 11-6 in a three-game losing streak before scoring three third-period goals in a 5-1 home win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
JJ Peterka scored twice on the power play and also set up a goal by Tage Thompson to notch his third career three-point showing. Thompson scored his eighth goal and added an assist on a night when he had 11 shots on goal.
The Sabres tied a season high by scoring five goals for the third time and had multiple power play goals for the first time to show marginal improvement. Buffalo is 5-for-17 on the man advantage in its past five contests after going 0-for-22 over its first eight.
Buffalo also earned the win after coach Lindy Ruff benched defensemen Henri Jokiharju and Mattias Samuelsson following lackluster showings in a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.
“That was a perfect response,” Thompson said. “That’s what you want to see. That’s kind of a textbook game on what we want to play. I think the last couple games we slowed it down a little bit too much maybe, more so just in Detroit (on Saturday).”
The Rangers are 12-1-3 in the past 16 meetings with the Sabres.
