The Rangers have spent much of the season trying to patch together the middle of the ice, and Mike Sullivan finally reached for a different kind of fix against the St. Louis Blues.
With Joe Veleno sidelined after being brought in to steady the fourth line, New York had already cycled through options like Cole Beaudoin and Justin Dowling. Luke Glendening was added to help stabilize things, but the Rangers still went 0-3-0 with him in the lineup. That left Sullivan looking for something more dramatic.
So he moved Will Cuylle to center.
Cuylle had never played the position in his professional career, which made the decision a real gamble. But it paid off immediately in a 3-1 win. The Rangers got a lift from the new setup, and Cuylle’s line with Eeli Tolvanen and Oliver Bjorkstrand looked right at home.
At five-on-five, Cuylle posted the best individual expected goal share in the game at 79.3%, according to Hockey Stats. He finished with 0.78 expected goals for and 0.2 expected goals against in 9:15 of ice time. The trio of Cuylle, Tolvanen and Bjorkstrand also held up well together, generating a 61.1% expected goals share in 5:15 of five-on-five play, with 0.32 expected goals for and 0.20 against.
Only one line did better by those numbers: Alexis Lafreniere, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Dorofeyev, who have been putting up strong results since Sullivan put them together.
The new Cuylle-led group also showed up on the scoresheet. In the third period, Bjorkstrand scored the Rangers’ second goal, with Tolvanen and Cuylle picking up the assists.
Tolvanen later sealed the game with an empty-net goal, assisted by J.T. Miller and Adam Fox, giving him his first multi-point game of the season.
He finished at plus-2, while Cuylle was plus-1.
It was a bold call from Sullivan, especially considering Cuylle had never lined up at center before. But the early return was hard to ignore, and with so much uncertainty down the middle, this looks like a trio New York should keep together for now.
There are still questions about whether it can last, especially with Cuylle averaging 0.21 assists per game in his career. For one night, though, the move worked, and Cuylle even answered with an assist in his first game at center.
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