Barry Trotz went with his muscle, and it paid off

Out came the skill and in went the muscle. And it seemed to work.

Islanders coach Barry Trotz decided to scratch talented rookie Michael Dal Colle and dress the monstrous Ross Johnston for what would turn out to be his team’s 4-3 win over the Rangers on Thursday night at the Garden.

Johnston had been the one who goaded a reluctant Cody McLeod, on the night before Thanksgiving, into a fight that ended with McLeod breaking his hand and missing more than a month. Rangers coach David Quinn then put McLeod in the starting lineup Thursday, and he tried to fight Matt Martin off the opening faceoff.

Martin, dealing with a left-elbow injury, declined. He seemed to be making it clear Johnston was on the bench to take the challenge.

see also

Rangers need to embrace what slide has made painfully obvious

If you want to rate degree of demoralizing defeats, be…

Then, when Johnston came on for the next shift and tried to engage McLeod, the Rangers winger skated away. It even drew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty on Johnston, with the Rangers getting a power-play goal from Ryan Strome to go up, 1-0.

Eventually, Martin and McLeod fought at 7:41 of the first — really, more of an ice dance — but by then, it seemed like the tempers had cooled a bit.

“They have a couple more physical guys and I had a feeling they were up to something,” Trotz said explaining his lineup move. “Right off the bat, they wanted to get involved with [Martin]. But they didn’t want to seem to do much with Ross.”

The Rangers were without Kevin Hayes (upper body) for the fourth straight game. Hayes did skate with the team in the morning, wearing a non-contact jersey.

“That was a step forward,” Quinn said. “The fact he was out there today was a good sign.”

Quinn brought lefty defenseman Freddy Claesson back into the lineup after he had been scratched for two straight and four of the past six, replacing righty Tony DeAngelo. Quinn said he was bringing Claesson in because he “plays an in-your-face style,” and Claesson collected an assist in 19:55 of ice time paired with Kevin Shattenkirk.

Brendan Smith was the other defenseman scratched, his second straight game out and fifth time in street clothes in the past six games.

Rangers rookie Filip Chytil continued to play out of his natural center position on the wing, with Ryan Strome in the middle and Jesper Fast on the right. That bumped Mats Zuccarello to the top line, with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad.