All season long, Mike Sullivan has shaken up the New York Rangers’ forward combinations with the hopes of finding something that clicks.
It appears as if he’s finally succeeded in doing so, and all he had to do was make one simple change.
Bringing Will Cuylle to the third line alongside Noah Laba and Brett Berard added an element of balance the Rangers didn’t previously have when Cuylle played on the top six.
“If you look at our forwards and rank them in the top six, Will would be in our top six without a doubt, but the question is what are the best combinations that set our team up for success?” Sullivan said. “I’ve always been a strong believer that balance is important because if you are reliant on one or two lines every night to try to produce offensively or try to win games for you, my experience has been that it’s hard to win consistently in today’s game. An opportunity to create a little bit of balance through our lineup, both upfront, but also through our blueline, I think gives us more of an opportunity to build a team game where any particular line on any given night could help us.”
The Rangers’ top-six forward combinations now consist of two lines with distinct roles and identities. The Artemi Panarin-Mika Zibanejad-Alexis Lafrenière line serves as the team’s main source of offense, while the J.T. Miller-Vincent Trocheck-Conor Sheary trio has taken on the shutdown role, oftentimes matching up against the opposition’s top players.
In the past, we’ve seen Zibanejad play more of a two-way, shutdown role, but Sullivan wants the Swedish forward’s offensive skillset to be utilized and properly unleashed.
Not only does Sullivan feel Zibanejad benefits from playing with two offensively-minded players in Panarin and Lafrenière, but believes that Zibanejad brings the best out of the entire line as a whole.
“I have liked it and one of the reasons I think it has an opportunity to be successful for us is (because) Mika is a cerebral player and he has really good offensive instincts, so he can play a dynamic game off of the rush, which I think plays to one of Bread’s strengths, and he could play a possession game, which I think is complementary to Bread’s game,” Sullivan said of why he thinks the Zibanejad-Panarin-Lafrenière line has been successful.
“I also think he’s a cerebral player defensively. There’s an honesty to Mika’s game where he’s on the right side of the puck a lot, he’s in the right positions a lot, he has a good stick and he’s committed to playing on both sides of the puck, and I think he adds that element to that line. I think Mika has fit there since we put him there. For all of those reasons.”
Miller, Trocheck and Sheary’s contributions on the defensive side of the puck should not go unnoticed.
They’ve taken the brunt of the defensive load, matching up against some of the NHL’s premier players over the past couple of games, including against the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Jack Eichel.
“J.T. and Trocheck in particular, those two guys, they have a 200 foot game. MacKinnon is a handful, he's big and he's strong and he's powerful. J.T. is big and strong and powerful also,” Sullivan said. “We just felt, it gives us the best chance to try to neutralize one of the more dynamic players in the league… I think those guys, they take those challenges, they embrace those. I think they're competitive guys, so when you give them a challenge like that, they tend to elevate their games.”
As opposed to the flashy and finesse-based brand of hockey the Panarin-Zibanejad-Lafrenière line play with, Miller, Trocheck, and Sheary counter that with a hard-nosed, physical offensive style.
“Those three guys, they're pretty good with that puck pursuit game in the offensive zone. J.T. likes to play that grind game in the offensive zone,” Sullivan said. “He's heavy on the puck, he's strong. He likes to hang onto the pucks, but he needs help when teams collapse coverage on him, and I think that's where a guy like Conor Sheary or Trocheck for example, they can be good in those areas also. Their area skills are pretty good. They can play in traffic and they embrace contact. I think that that certainly complements J.T.’s game.”
The versatility provided by Cuylle, Laba, and Berard allows Sullivan to be flexible in terms of how he wants to utilize Miller’s line.
This newly formed kid line brings a physical edge to their game, while also flashing fans with skill and speed, making them impactful at both ends of the ice.
In fact, Sullivan trusts their ability to play a prominent defensive role in order to fully unlock Miller and Trocheck’s offensive potential.
Mike Sullivan Reveals Injury Updates Regarding The Status Of Matt Rempe, Adam Fox, And Adam Edström
There were a few injury updates for the New York <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers">Rangers</a> to come out of Tuesday’s practice.
“We’ve gone power against power a fair amount, and I think J.T. and Trocheck when they are together, they tend to get the line share of other team’s top players. I think ideally we would like to spread that a little bit to give J.T. and Trocheck an opportunity to get away from them and free them up sometimes from maybe more favorable matchups sometimes, and depending on how the game goes, we look to do that anyways,” Sullivan emphasized.
“It depends on do we have a lead, are we behind? It all depends on what the situation is. One of the things I’ve tried to do is as Labs’ (Laba’s) game has developed, especially with a guy like Will Cuylle on his line, I feel like it gives us the opportunity to give those guys situationally against team’s top players, they could get a defensive zone start for example. Will Cuylle is pretty good in the faceoff circle, he’s a left shot guy, Labs is pretty good in the faceoff circle, he’s a right shot guy, so to have two of those guys on the same line, can be beneficial. Sam Carrick's line got a little bit of that with a defensive zone draw against some of the other team’s top people. That gives us the chance to take J.T. and Trocheck out of those situations sometimes, and maybe have more of an opportunity to deploy them in the offensive zone sometimes.”
These lines aren’t necessarily permanent, but if the Rangers continue to play at the level they have been through this most recent stretch, Sullivan should keep the lineup as is and start to build some stability within his forward group.