Peter Laviolette made a big move by putting Filip Chytil on the Rangers' first line and it payed off in a huge way.
New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette made a big move in Game 2 by boosting Filip Chytil to the first line alongside Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad.
In Game 1, the Florida Panthers dominated New York en route to a decisive 3-0 victory at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers struggled to generate any sort of offense and desperately needed a spark to get them going.
That’s why Laviolette made a drastic change moving Chytil to the first line while placing Jack Roslovic on the third line.
Despite not recording any goals, Chytil looked phenomenal with Kreider and Zibanejad. He was all over the ice, generating multiple high quality offensive chances.
The 24-year-old played a quick game and was skating exceptionally well throughout the overtime thriller.
This was just Chytil’s third playoff game this season. He suffered a concussion back in November, which sidelined him for the remainder of the regular season and the majority of the first two playoff rounds.
In his new role, Chytil’s minutes went from 9:17 all the way to 20:09 given there was an overtime involved. He also played on the second unit of the power play with his role continuing to increase.
The emergence of Chytil to the top-six certainly boosted New York's offense, so Laviolette should continue to roll with this newfound explosive line.