Rangers Blow Up Offensive Lines In Hopes For Improvement

The New York Rangers have made drastic changes to their offensive line combinations.

During Saturday’s practice, Peter Laviolette formulated four new lines, completely switching things up from the way they’ve been through the entire season.

Here’s what the lines looked like:

Panarin-Zibanejad-Lafrenière

Kreider-Chytil-Kakko

Cuylle-Trocheck-Smith

Edström-Carrick-Vesey

Laviolette felt that New York’s offense hasn't been quite where he’s wanted it to be the last couple of games, which led to these changes.

“Just to give it a change,” Laviolette said on why he shaked up the lines. “Gave it a different look in practice and we are going to go back and talk. Just wanted to take a look at some things.”

Some may consider these changes as monumental and while that may be a good way to describe Laviolette’s decision, he feels that he just made a few little changes that seem bigger than they actually are.

“With regard to Lafrenière and Panarin, it was just one change,” Laviolette said. “With regard to Filip and Kakko, it was just one change. When you are moving things around, there’s going to be some change that goes into it, so we’ll see.”

If the Rangers decide to stick with these new lines, the goal is to create a more balanced attack and get players’ offense game jumpstarted who have struggled to start the season.

The Rangers play the New York Islanders tomorrow and that matchup will be a big test for this new-look offensive unit.