The Rangers are in their first real skid of the season, and the timing has opened the door to a lineup tweak on the blue line.
New York has dropped three straight and five of its last six, a stretch that has exposed some of the cracks in a start that had looked far cleaner earlier in the year. The injury to Igor Shesterkin has been part of the slide, and the Rangers have not matched their early-season form away from home, even while they’ve stayed strong at 6-1 at home.
A lot of the recent trouble has shown up in the defensive groups behind the top pair. For most of the season, the Rangers had settled into a familiar setup: Adam Fox with Vladislav Gavrikov, Sean Durzi with Marcus Pettersson, and Braden Schneider with Alberts Smits.
That arrangement worked well early, but the last few games have brought more breakdowns and more costly mistakes. In the most recent loss to the Los Angeles Kings, the game got away from the Rangers early, and Mike Sullivan responded by altering his defense pairs.
The change came by flipping Durzi and Schneider. That left the Rangers with Durzi alongside Smits and Schneider paired with Pettersson.
Durzi has been dealing with a bit of an injury issue, which may have affected his play. Still, the break gives New York a chance to get him closer to full strength, and the Durzi-Smits combination is an intriguing one. As the fifth overall pick keeps developing, getting time next to Durzi could help speed that process along.
There’s also another layer to the decision. Scott Morrow still has not made his season debut, and getting him into the mix in one of the defensive spots would make sense soon.
For a Rangers team that has been leaking mistakes on the back end lately, a little shuffling on defense feels like a natural next step.
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