Per Vince Mercogliano, the Rangers have a bit of a new look today. Filip Chytil is still out, but that’s not the point. Alexis Lafreniere is currently skating as an extra instead of in the middle six, where he was yesterday.
Slightly different look for the #NYR this morning:
Panarin – Zib – Kakko
Kreider – Trocheck – Wheeler
Cuylle – Goodrow – Pitlick
Vesey – Bonino – Othmann
(Laf & Brodzinski skating as extras)Miller – Trouba
Gustafsson – Fox
Lindgren – Schneider
Jones – Harpur— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) October 3, 2023
This marks the second straight day with a demotion for Lafreniere. This is still preseason and Lafreniere isn’t getting cut, so there’s no need to panic and overanalyze this. There are two things at play here.
The first is that Laviolette needs to get both Will Cuylle and Brennan Othmann into the lineup with viable NHLers to help with decision making. Someone had to come out of the lineup. Yesterday it was Cuylle. Today it’s Laf. There isn’t anything else to read into on the surface.
However this is very clearly a message to Laf. Laviolette won’t cut him, and the Rangers won’t waive him. However he will be scratched if he doesn’t meet the effort expectations. Accountability has come for Lafreniere first.
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