After the Rangers went down 2-0 in last night’s game against Montreal, coach John Tortorella decided to “shake up” the lines. And by shake up, I clearly mean reuniting Brandon Dubinsky with Vinny Prospal and Marian Gaborik. With all due respect to Erik Christensen, who played admirably, Dubinsky belongs up front with those two, and is the most productive when he is with them.

Before Dubinsky shattered his hand, this trio contributed for roughly half of the Rangers goals from the forward position. Dubinsky is exactly what this line needs. A tough center who will go to the dirty areas, get the puck to the skilled players, and then plant himself in front of the net, as he did on that brilliant Prospal feed.

It is time to let that line be. No more impulsive line changes, where you insert Sean Avery, or Artem Anisimov, to try and get some new blood flowing. Just leave them alone. Those three are made to play with each other. They just click. It’s not always about putting the best players on a line together, it’s about putting the players that work the best together on a line. Prospal-Dubinsky-Gaborik just works.

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