It is the black hole of the Rangers lineup, and coach Alain Vigneault is doing everything he can to keep it from sucking away any semblance of a balanced forward group.
The right wing on the second line, next to Chris Kreider and center Derek Stepan, has been a revolving door of auditions. Training camp featured a mix of J.T. Miller and Kevin Hayes, but a couple games into the regular season, Vigneault remembered his love for the big-bodied Hayes down the middle, so Jesper Fast got a shot in the top six. When more offense was needed, Miller went back.
And now that Miller has found his much-treaded route back into Vigneault’s quasi-doghouse, it was Hayes back on the wing for Monday night’s 3-0 win over the Predators at the Garden.
“I thought that line had some good moments,” Vigneault said after the penalty-riddled affair, when Hayes had a power-play goal and added an assist on Stepan’s third-period score that gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead. “When we were playing 5-on-5, I liked some of the looks they got.”
Vigneault said both Miller and Hayes “are young players that we have high expectations for them. We don’t think that those high expectations are over the top. We expect more from a couple of those guys and we’re trying to sort it out.”
And that didn’t take the blame away from Stepan and Kreider for the production of what should be the team’s second line.
“It’s not just the guys we’re trying to fill it with,” Vigneault said of that right-wing spot. “Step hasn’t been as consistent as we’ve known. His game is been, as he would put it, a little roller coaster. And Kreids has been the same way. I think they’re both starting to find their stride, find their game, and it’s improving.”
The line shuffle also put Oscar Lindberg back at his natural center position after he had been moved to wing at the start of this, his rookie season. He got an assist on Hayes’ goal on the man-advantage.
“I’ve played center pretty much all my life, so that’s what I’m more comfortable doing,” said Lindberg, who started between Miller and Fast before things got juggled midway through the second period after a spate of penalty killing. “But playing wing is fine too. Whatever the coaches say.”
Lindberg, 24, has seven goals and 13 points in his first 21 games this season as a winger, and has been a savior for Vigneault in that he can play both positions.
“I didn’t mind Oscar at all in the middle,” Vigneault said after the game. “Because of all the penalty killing, I kind of reshuffled the lines a little in the second. But that’s just how things unfolded.”
Defenseman Dan Boyle, 39, stayed in the lineup for the third straight game while Dylan McIlrath remained a healthy scratch for the 17th time in the first 21 games.
“He’s definitely an experienced player that has won [a Stanley Cup] before,” Vigneault said of Boyle, who played 17:48. “Any player that has that experience, we try and use that and share that with our group. There’s not doubt that Dan shares his knowledge with all his teammates. Very respected player.”