Rangers hoping lineup changes have ‘domino effect’

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The Rangers have utilized 23 different line combinations to start their first 10 games. Sunday afternoon against the Kings, coach David Quinn will feature combinations 24, 25, 26 and 27.

This is not a manifestation of a coach pulling names out of a hat in an attempt to generate offense from a club that had scored just 13 five-on-five goals, tied for fourth-fewest in the league through Friday, and had been outscored 8-2 at full strength over the previous three contests. This was more than just a spin of the wheel.

For the new combinations represent, according to Quinn, “a domino effect” of moving Filip Chytil back to his natural position in the middle, where he will skate between Jesper Fast and either Cody McLeod or Vinni Lettieri.

“I think part of the issue for Filip is that he’s been playing against everybody’s top two lines and that’s not easy to do for a 19-year-old even though he is comfortable on the wing,” Quinn said of Chytil, who had played his past five matches on the left side of the Kevin Hayes unit after five at center. “I think he’ll get to skate more in the middle.”

Chytil played just 11:03 in Thursday night’s 4-1 defeat in Chicago. He got just three shifts in the third period, and did not get on from the 6:45 mark until 19:14, after the Blackhawks had put it away with an empty-netter. So now back to center for No. 72, stuck on no goals and two assists.

see also

The Rangers toughest decision as their big rebuild takes shape

At some point, the Rangers are going to have to…

Jimmy Vesey will move to the left with Mika Zibanejad and Mats Zuccarello. Chris Kreider will skate with Hayes and Ryan Spooner, elevated in the lineup for no discernible reason. Brett Howden will skate between a pair of Russian lads in Vladislav Namestnikov and Pavel Buchnevich.

“It’s trying to give guys an opportunity,” Quinn said. “And see who takes a step up.”

This isn’t like last year or the two years before that, when the Blueshirts were routinely pinned in their own end for shifts at a time and had trouble creating chances. The Rangers, though beaten to the puck decisively by the Blackhawks in all three zones, ranked 10th in the NHL on shot attempts and ninth in shots. Yet, tied for fourth from the bottom in goals and fifth from the bottom with a 5.39 shooting percentage, according to NaturalStattrick.com

“This isn’t because of the way we play in our end or the way we break out,” said Henrik Lundqvist, expected to be in nets Sunday. “From my perspective, we have created enough opportunities in almost every game, but we haven’t been able to take advantage often enough.

“It isn’t for me to say, ‘why.’ I’m a goalie.”

It probably has little to do with the line combinations. The Rangers just don’t have natural-born finishers and they don’t have a group pulsating with net-crashing DNA. Quinn has every right to make changes in the alignment — his predecessor, Alain Vigneault, juggled combos through Christmas his first couple of years behind the New York bench — but at some point, the juggling becomes counterproductive, which is the last thing this under-productive club needs.

The Rangers are coming off their poorest game of the year. They were not much of a match for Chicago, even though trailing only 2-1 deep into the third period. The Blueshirts were beaten to the puck all night, generating one shot in the third period that came at 4:25 and were often disorganized without the puck.

“The last game was unlike any we’ve played,” said Quinn, whose club will face a desperate 2-7-1 Kings team. “You’re going to have stinkers over the course of the year. The key is how you respond. Are you going to have two in a row or stop it?

“That’s what we talked about [before practice]. We have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”