NY Rangers lines tomorrow: Rempe in; Trouba, Schneider flipped

Per Vince Mercogliano, the NY Rangers lines tomorrow have a different feel to them. And no, we aren’t talking about Filip Chytil just yet. Matt Rempe will draw in against the Isles, which was expected after the Noah Dobson incident on Tuesday night.

The other change was one that has been long overdue. The Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller defense pair was finally broken up, with Braden Schneider flipping with Trouba.

The change on defense has been a long time coming, but it doesn’t necessarily change that much. If anything, we will likely see more balanced usage from all three pairs. My theory is Peter Laviolette doesn’t necessarily want to try to match his defense pairs against top competition. This was a failed experiment against Pittsburgh the last week.

Instead, it makes far more sense to match the forwards properly, and attempt to get the right defense pairs out there based on zone start and game situation. It’s almost impossible for me to prove that, but it’s my theory.