It had been nearly five months of next man up from Hartford rather than next man into the organization. Indeed, once training camp had opened in September, the Rangers stayed inside of themselves when in need of reinforcements.
But the dynamic changed leading up to the trade deadline. Frank Vatrano came first. Five days later, Andrew Copp, Tyler Motte and Justin Braun followed. New faces in the lineup have meant familiar ones in street clothes.
Roles honed for the first three-quarters of the season are changing just about a month ahead of the playoffs. Athletes are being asked to adapt. So is head coach Gerard Gallant. It is a laboratory on ice.
The Rangers got away with one on Sunday in defeating the Sabres 5-4 in overtime at the Garden after they’d been stuck in neutral most of the way following Vatrano’s two early strikes within 18 seconds for a 2-0 lead just 4:17 into the match.
They looked for the easy ways out. They got lazy. They went 12:48 without a shot following Vatrano’s second goal during which time they manufactured only two attempts. They had to scramble back after falling behind 3-2 early in the second with Alexandar Georgiev surrendering three goals on five shots bridging the first two periods. They were able to do so, Alexis Lafreniere tying it midway through the third before K’Andre Miller won it 2:02 into OT.
This is all about preparing for the playoffs that will commence in just over five weeks. That is why Georgiev, whose save percentage has been under .880 in six of his last seven starts, got the nod in this one while Igor Shesterkin got a breather in advance of Tuesday’s match in Pittsburgh that kicks off a back-to-back that concludes in Detroit the following night.
Vatrano’s first four games as a Ranger were spent on the right with Ryan Strome and Artemi Panarin before shifting for the last two games to the unit with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad in which his straight-ahead speed complements No. 20’s on the other flank. It is all about making adjustments.
That is what much of Sunday was about after Ryan Strome left the match following the first period with a lower-body injury that Gallant does not believe is serious. When No. 16 went down, it all changed. Copp, who had opened on the right with Strome and Panarin, moved into the middle while Barclay Goodrow moved up to the right. Motte, who had opened on the fourth line, took Goodrow’s vacated spot and played on the third line with Lafreniere and Filip Chytil.
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But Copp had issues in the middle. So he swapped places with Goodrow. And Motte actually wound up playing center on his unit after taking faceoffs in place of Chytil. Some of it worked against a young Buffalo team on its way to an 11th straight playoff miss. Some of it didn’t.
“I’m still looking for [more information],” Gallant said when asked if he views Copp as a center or a wing. “When Strome went down I said, ‘OK, we’ll put Copper in the middle,’ but it didn’t go too well for our team so I put Goodie in there to try and get it going again.
“I would liked to have left Copper in the middle — he’s good on faceoffs, but the line just wasn’t jumping. He’s on the right side and we know he can move to center if needed.”
Determining his best position might be a topic for the offseason, when Copp becomes an unrestricted free agent. There is always more demand for centers. The Rangers will be one of those teams in the market for a high-end center if Strome opts to test the market.
“It’s whatever the coach wants, but I’d say that I am a center who can play the wing,” said the 27-year-old Copp. “That’s kind of the way my career has unraveled but today I was better on the wing than at center so if it’s going well there’s no need to break that up.
“As a general theme, I’m more of a center but right wing is working out pretty well right now.”
The versatility of both Copp and Motte (and of Goodrow, whose value continues to increase) were on display in this one. So was the team’s general resilience in overcoming a half hour of blah.
Even more importantly, so was the steady improvement of Lafreniere, who went to the net to convert Chytil’s nifty backhand feed in tight for the 3-3 goal before setting up Miller for the winner. So too was Chytil’s increasing confidence, whose uptick is as an important addition as Copp’s or Vatrano’s or Motte’s or Braun’s.
That is because an elevated No. 72 equates to a dangerous third line. Maybe Chytil is the next man up.
