One of the top arguments in the pro-trade for JT Miller crowd was, even with Filip Chytil going the other way, the Rangers would have tremendous center depth. This made sense, as the Rangers center depth would be Miller, Vincent Trocheck, and Mika Zibanejad in the top nine. On paper, it’s great, as Zibanejad could be dropped in the lineup at 5v5 to give him easier matchups. Instead, Peter Laviolette galaxy brained his lineup.
Galaxy braining the Rangers center depth may be understating it. Instead of running a lineup that leveraged the proposed Rangers center depth, Mika Zibanejad was moved to wing on the top line with Miller and Artemi Panarin. While that line was dominant and looked strong, it absolutely gutted the Rangers depth.
The third line had Jonny Brodzinski at center, with Will Cuylle and Chris Kreider flanking him. That line got absolutely demolished at 5v5, to the tune of 8 shot attempts for and 23 against. They simply could not get out of their own zone and it’s a miracle they weren’t on the ice for a 5v5 goal against, despite anywhere from 4-6 high danger chances against, depending on which player’s stats you look at.
Not helping the matter was Laviolette, for the most part, getting Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren out there with that trio, and boy did that defense pair struggle. They surrendered 3 goals at 5v5, though none with the third line out there.
The issue at hand is matchup related. Good coaches will see the Rangers have two lines that can score, one that’s pretty good defensively, and one (the third line) that simply didn’t have a role. So the Bruins made life easy on themselves and kept their best players on against a defensively inept Smith-Trocheck-Lafreniere line, while getting top defensive players out against the Panarin-Miller-Zibanejad line.
At that point – the third line, which is supposed to help with tertiary scoring, couldn’t do anything. As good as Cuylle has been, he can’t carry around two other linemates that either can’t get it done this year (Kreider) or were miscast as a 3C (Brodzinski). This isn’t on the players, this is a coaching issue, completely misfiring on the Rangers center depth.
The missing link in the JT Miller trade was how Laviolette would deploy his lines. The Rangers center depth was supposed to be a major strength after this trade, but instead he gutted it. Boston isn’t a good team and steamrolled the Blueshirts. What will Vegas do tonight if it’s more of the same?
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