rangers leafs brendan smith

As the Rangers continue through the season, the ice time differences between the top three lines and the fourth line comes more into the discussion. In yesterday’s ice time post, there was a huge difference between the third line and fourth line minutes at even strength, almost a full three minutes over the course of a game. No one on the fourth line averages more than 10 minutes a game.

Part of this issue is lineup choices. The Rangers have a fourth line that consists of one possibly viable player in Greg McKegg, one defenseman in Brendan Smith, and a rotating circle of rookies and Micheal Haley. McKegg would be fine in the right spot, but the others are more or less net negatives. Yes, that includes Smith who has seen his ice time take a steep dive lately.

Another part of the problem is the rotation at even strength. It looks like David Quinn does an old school 1-2-3-1-2-3-4 rotation, although it is difficult to keep track at evens since the game has a ton of special teams play. This is a classic chicken/egg situation though, as we don’t know if the rotation is just DQ or if it’s a product of the poor choices he has available to him.

Addressing the rotation, Quinn is justified in keeping his fourth line on the bench since they generally aren’t very good. Playing your best players more leads to better team performance. However with a condensed schedule to finish out the year, it leads to more fatigue and potential diminishing returns.

The first step is addressing the personnel. It’s not something that will happen this season, but the best way to build a usable fourth line is to have so much top-nine depth that the fourth line is made up of third liners. Filling in with smart, cheap free agent signings is also a key aspect here.

If the first step is fixing the personnel, then the prologue is recognizing that the current crew isn’t cutting it, and to go in a different direction. The first step in addressing a problem is recognizing you have a problem. The Rangers have a fourth line problem.

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