The Rangers take on the Capitals tonight at MSG. New York comes in off a 4-3 loss to Florida on Saturday while Washington leads the Metro Division and has been on fire recently. Henrik Lundqvist will be between the pipes for the Blueshirts.
The good news is that Mika Zibanejad was on the ice yesterday. The bad news, in plural, is that he was wearing a red, non-contact jersey and will miss the entire week. He has now missed nine games, and after sitting out the week, he will have missed 12 straight contests. The hope – prayer maybe – is that Zib will be able to play Monday, November 25 against Minnesota. But that is not a certainty by any measure. When he does return, we had speculated that Strome might be moved to wing, remaining with Artemi Panarin and joined by Zib. Coach David Quinn put the kibosh on that:
“Strome’s obviously had a really good start, so I’m not going to take him out of the middle unless something drastic happens,” he said.
If Strome stays at center, there are many questions that arise.
- Which line does he serve as the pivot?
- How does that impact Zib?
- Does he remain with Panarin?
- Will Filip Chytil and Brett Howden get bumped down a line?
Let me take those in order:
Questions 1, 2 and 3 are all interrelated, as is question 4 to an extent (yes, dominoes). Strome and Panarin have built up a chemistry. Zib may need time to get re-acclimated to game action. Initially, leave Strome with Panarin, have Kaapo Kakko slide up to join them, if the desire remains to reward Kakko, moving Fast down. If the top trio is Panarin-Strome-Kakko, then where does Zib go?
If Zibanejad centers the second line, moving Chytil down, then Zib is reunited with Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich, a trio we saw last season. The impact of a move such is this is that Chytil ends up on the third line with Brendan Lemieux and Fast, which is not a recipe for offensive success for Chytil, who has shown he can center the second line. Chytil has played well since being recalled from AHL Hartford for the Oct. 29 game against the Lightning (the first game after Zibanejad got hurt), so it’s possible Zib centers the third line, though that would be wasting his talents to an extent as well. That’s why I could see Fast remaining on the top line with Kakko on the third line, centered by either one of the three pivotmen mentioned, depending on how Quinn sets his lines.
Howden would almost certainly move from the third line to the fourth, centering two of Greg McKegg, Brendan Smith and Tim Gettinger, as of now. While Lias Andersson was the one demoted, the argument could have been made that Howden, despite better analytics measures than Andersson, could have received similar treatment with Boo Nieves replacing him on the fourth line.
My view is that I would move Strome to wing on the first line alongside Panarin and Zib. Leave the KCB trio together as a unit. I would keep Kakko on the third line for now, because that balances out the scoring. The lines then would be:
Panarin-Zib-Strome
Kreider-Chytil-Buchnevich
Fast-Howden-Kakko
Lemiuex-McKegg-Smith (Gettinger)
If Strome stays as the center, have him center this line, moving Howden down, as noted above, or place Zib here initially upon his return. I might move McKegg up to the third line, replacing Lemieux, who drops to the fourth line, and play him with Kakko and Howden.
Panarin-Zib-Fast
Kreider-Chytil-Buchnevich
McKegg-Strome-Kakko
Lemiuex-Howden-Smith (Gettinger)
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