The New York Rangers’ newly assembled trio of Brett Berard, Noah Laba, and Jonny Brodzinski has brought a whole new dynamic to their bottom-six forward unit.
All season long, the Rangers have been overly reliant on their top-six forwards, while the bottom-six forwards have provided very little scoring or offensive explosiveness.
Since the Rangers called up Brett Berard last week, he’s brought a new, refreshing dynamic to the lineup.
While Berard’s play hasn’t translated to any points, his hard-knose, speedy game continues to be noticeable to Mike Sullivan.
He has an element of skill that is critical for any given forward to possess, yet he also plays a physical brand of hockey.
The combination of both these traits makes him such an intriguing forward to plug into a bottom-six group that was simply lacking a player of his caliber.
“I really liked his energy,” Sullivan said of Berard after the Rangers’ win against the St. Louis Blues. “I thought he brought some speed. He can shoot the puck. He's a good kid, he plays hard. We anticipated that he would bring some juice, and he did.”
Laba needs no introduction.
The rookie burst onto the scene during training camp and worked his way up the depth chart until he made the Rangers’ opening-night roster as their third-line center.
Laba’s impact has been one of the biggest surprises of the season thus far, as he’s shown a knack to generate offense, while also having the ability to play a strong two-way game.
“I think he's improving and developing and growing right in front of our eyes with every game he plays,” Sullivan said of Laba. “His learning curve has been steep. He has real good aptitude for the game.
Brodzinski is a player who can play anywhere in the lineup, whether it’s on the first, second, third, or fourth line.
Despite being scratched out of the lineup on multiple occasions to start the season, Brodzinski has slowly begun to earn the trust of Mike Sullivan, who even slotted him in the top-six group when the Rangers were dealing with some injuries.
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The New York <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers">Rangers</a> came away with a 6-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Friday afternoon.
“I think Jonny is showing the ability to score some goals. He's opportunistic,” Sullivan said.
Now, all three of these players have been put on a line together, and it has made for an exciting trio to watch.
Over the past two games playing together, they’ve used their speed to create offense, causing difficulties for the opposition, always chasing for pucks and forechecking hard.
"They play a no-nonsense, straight-ahead, speed game – and I think speed kills in today's game,” Sullivan said. “They're good on the puck pursuit. They challenge people wide. They're connected with cooperative play in the offensive zone. They're always close and around each other, so they can compete on pucks. And just their quickness and their tenacity, I think, has been effective for us.
“They've chipped in offensively, which helps, but they're also a good momentum line for us. They force teams to expend energy defending them. They help us gain momentum. They might get an offensive zone whistle where we get a chance to put the next line in an offensive situation off a faceoff. Those are some of the things that they do for us.”
The combination of Berard, Laba, and Brodzinski has helped provide the Blueshirts with another line that can generate scoring chances at a high rate, which has shaved off the load from the top-six forward unit, who were really relayed upon to take on the brunt of the offensive load.
If they remain together, these three forwards can really help transform New York’s offense and give them the necessary depth that they need.