Mike Sullivan’s first practice look at the New York Rangers came with a new set of forward combinations, but the blue line stayed exactly where it has been all season.
The defense pairs remained unchanged: Vlad Gavrikov with Adam Fox, Marcus Pettersson with Sean Durzi, and Alberts Smits with Braden Schneider. That decision stands out because, as the source material notes, teams have been going after that third pair, while the second pair has been sinking with its minutes. If the pairs aren’t going to change, then the usage needs to.
On the forward side, Gabe Perreault was moved down to the third line with Will Cuylle and Noah Laba. Pavel Dorofeyev slid into Perreault’s old spot next to Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere, while Tye Kartye remained on the second line. The updated look, as posted in the source, was:
Dorofeyev-Zibanejad-Lafreniere
Kartye-Miller-Bjorkstrand
Cuylle-Laba-Perreault
Raddysh-Glendening-Rempe
Gavrikov-Fox
Pettersson-Durzi
Smits-Schneider
Morrow the extra
Eeli Tolvanen was out as a non-participant because of personal reasons, but the expectation is that he would slide into Matt Rempe’s spot on the fourth line.
What matters most, though, is how those lines are deployed. Cuylle and Laba had been taking most of the defensive-zone starts as a shutdown-looking third unit, which doesn’t really match Perreault’s game.
That makes the zone split the key question now: the third line needs more offensive-zone work, ideally with the JT Miller line handling more of a hybrid assignment. The fourth line still doesn’t have a clear role, although Tolvanen could help it tilt toward a little more offense.
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