Mike Sullivan’s latest lineup shuffle paid off for the Rangers on Sunday, but Pavel Dorofeyev still didn’t crack the scoresheet.
The Rangers’ top six generated three five-on-five goals in the win over Vancouver after Sullivan adjusted his top two lines, yet Dorofeyev remained stuck on one goal through the club’s first seven games. That slow start even led to a third-period change on the power play, when Sullivan bumped him off the top unit and put Gabe Perreault in his place. Perreault quickly helped set up a power-play goal for Alexis Lafreniere.
By Tuesday, though, Dorofeyev was back where he started on the first power-play group, on the right half-boards, as the Rangers prepared to face Tampa Bay at the Garden for the second time this season.
“We obviously know and believe that Pav is a pretty good offensive player, with pretty good instincts,” Sullivan said at Tuesday’s morning skate in Westchester. “He's a big part of this team.
He will continue to be a big part of this team moving forward. We're trying to find a way to help him capture his best game.”
Dorofeyev, for his part, isn’t bothered by the modest goal total.
“No, not really,’’ he said. “I'm not focused on that stuff at all.
Just trying to be myself and trying to help the team win the games. Sometimes, you just have to find another way, and it's not always the goals, you know?”
Asked whether he might have been pressing in Sunday’s game, Dorofeyev kept it light.
“I'm always trying hard,’’ he said with a smile. “I don't know if it's too hard. I'm just trying my best all the time.”
The numbers suggest patience is the smart play. It’s only eight games into an 84-game season, and Dorofeyev has produced before.
He scored 37 goals in 82 games with Vegas last year, added 12 more in 22 playoff games, and had 35 goals in 82 games in 2024-25. His 93 goals in 238 career games project to 32.8 over an 84-game schedule.
He also entered Tuesday leading the Rangers with 21 shots on goal, a decent sign that the puck will start going in sooner than later.
Still, Sullivan has been looking for ways to spark him rather than simply waiting around for the goals to come. On Sunday, he moved Dorofeyev off J.T.
Miller’s line and onto Mika Zibanejad’s unit to give the group a different look. Dorofeyev had opened training camp alongside Miller and newcomer Oliver Bjorkstrand, while Zibanejad stayed with Gabe Perreault and Alexis Lafreniere after that trio finished last season so well together.
Early on, that Miller-Dorofeyev-Bjorkstrand combination was the Rangers’ most effective line. Then, in the third game in Detroit, Sullivan made a live adjustment by inserting Tye Kartye for Bjorkstrand.
On Sunday, he shuffled again, swapping Lafreniere and Dorofeyev even though the Kartye-Miller-Dorofeyev group had posted strong possession and chance-creation numbers. This time, the change translated into goals, with Kartye scoring twice, including a rebound finish 27 seconds into the game after a Miller shot was set up by Lafreniere.
That kind of flexibility is part of the early-season process for a team with eight new faces from last season, a 40% turnover. Sullivan is still trying to find the right combinations, and Dorofeyev thinks chemistry will come with time.
“It’s just a matter of time, just to build a little chemistry and just trying to get predictable, one for another,” Dorofeyev said.
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