Thursday at the Rangers last practice before leaving for Calgary to start a three game West Coast road trip Coach Alain Vigneault made some changes in lines and defensive pairings.
With a lackluster performance Tuesday against Vancouver in the rearview mirror Vigneult decided some changes needed to be made to the lineup. Vigneult was quoted as saying “we’ve turned the paged on our last game. We’re focusing now on moving forward.”
On defense the top pairing of Captain Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi remained intact while rookie Brady Skjei moved to the right side paired with Marc Staal, Nick Holden and Kevin Klein rounded out the D on the third pairing.
The real shakeup came on the forward lines as AV had Mika Zibanejad between Mats Zuccarello and Pavel Buchnevich, Stepan between Chris Kreider and Rick Nash, Kevin Hayes centering Jimmy Vesey and J.T. Miller, and Pirri between Michael Grabner and Jesper Fast.
Vesey who had been on one of the top two lines since the beginning of the season was benched most of the third period versus Vancouver was dropped to the third line while Michael Grabner was dropped to the fourth line in what looks to be an attempt to rejuvenate the performance of Brandon Pirri and Jesper Fast reuniting the three.
Speaking with the media on Thursday Vigneault had the following to say about the team's recent play and upcoming road trip;
On Michael Grabner, "everything I am seeing from Grabs is what I expected. The speed, the penalty killing, the good stick. He is a player that can intimidate the opposition with his speed and when he is jumping and feeling good about himself he is a very effective player so far. That is what I expect to see moving forward."
How is Grabner similar to Carl Hagelin, "speed for the opposition is a scary thing when you see that coming down the wing. To some extent they are similar, they kill penalties, back off the opposition with good speed. I am very happy that he decided to join our team this year."
Would you like to see the goalie get warmup time when coming in, "we have discussed it since the incident. We all got caught off guard there and after talking about it, if we had to do it again, as soon as the situation like that happens I would send my backup into the dressing room right away to start stretching, to get a feel because there was about 4-5 minutes before the timeout came, we had been told on the bench, I knew it was coming, that we had to take him out. If ever this happens again and you see the goalie sneaking away from the bench that you will be able to figure it out. I do think that it's a really tough call. I respect those peoples decisions but Antti [Raanta] knew right away. He had been through a concussion last year, as soon as Rammer talked to him, he was telling Rammer that he was fine. He knew the difference of how he was feeling in the past and how he was feeling then. But you gotta follow the rules and that is what we did."
Should it be different for a skater vs a goalie, "I'm sure the league has given this a lot of thought also. It's about player safety and that is what they are looking at."
On Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, "definitely that same chemistry that we had at the start of the year between that duo and whoever we put on the right side hasn't been there lately. I don't think that is all on Chris. I don't think Mika has felt or been on his game as he was originally but I do see both of them working extremely hard. They are both watching a lot of video and trying to get back to the level that we need them to be. I'm not sure that I will split them up but if I tried it this morning it's definitely in the back of my mind."
He changed the lines up today because he wanted to get a look at them but he won't decide on what lines he will use until after watching Calgary's game tonight.
He said that he really likes how Brady Skjei has progressed and he wants to see how he looks on the right side.
On the road trip, "we are still in the phase about finding out about our group. There is no better way than going on the road and being together and preparing and trying to win games."
What is the challenge for the young guys, "same as the older guys. We have three in four nights against real good opponents. We will have to prepare and execute. We had a better practice today as far as our puck management and understanding in certain areas where you can make certain plays. Hopefully with another good practice tomorrow, we haven't had a lot of practice time lately, we will be ready for the three games in four nights."
