Filip Chytil, Rangers look to get back on track after ugly defeat

DETROIT — Filip Chytil was asked what the Rangers needed to do Saturday night against the Red Wings to bounce back from their awful, embarrassing loss to Buffalo two nights earlier.

The answer, to him at least, was pretty simple.

“Just play our normal game and not play like we did last time,’’ he said after the Rangers’ optional morning skate at Little Caesars Arena. “I don’t know what to say. It was so bad [against Buffalo], and everybody saw that.

“Even the people who don’t understand hockey, and they watched that game, it was just everything wrong. So we have to bounce back with playing our game and have ‘compete’ and win the battles.’’

Coach Peter Laviolette promised that the players would be better than they were Thursday, and the coach sent a message that he was confident in the group by keeping the same lineup for Saturday’s game.

The only change he made was to switch left wings Chris Kreider and Will Cuylle, putting Kreider with center Vincent Trocheck and right wing Reilly Smith and reuniting Cuylle — who scored in Thursday’s 6-1 loss — with Chytil and Kaapo Kakko.

The Cuylle-Chytil-Kakko line had been one of the team’s best for the first 10 games of the season, when, according to Natural Stat Trick, they outscored opponents 9-0 in their 102 minutes and 40 seconds together at five-on-five, outshot opponents 60-41, created 26 high-danger chances and allowed 17.

“There’s been some good things with that line being together, Cuylle, Kap and Fil in the middle,’’ Laviolette said. “Will’s had a good start to the season. But Fil and Kaapo [have had] effective starts to the season as well.’’

Laviolette broke up all of his lines and defense pairs last weekend because he wanted a different look after a series of bad games. The nominal first line of Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Smith was split up, with all three players going to different lines. That necessitated other players moving around as well.

Zibanejad got new wingers in Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere; Kreider dropped down to play with Chytil and Kakko, and Cuylle was elevated to play on a second line with Trocheck and Smith.

Everything looked fine in the first game with the new alignment, a 5-2 win over the Islanders, but nothing looked good against Buffalo. Laviolette switched up the top three lines in the third period, but on Saturday he went back to the lines he started the game with, except for the Cuylle-Kreider switch.

Chytil acknowledged that his line with Cuylle and Kakko clearly had great chemistry but added that it was Laviolette’s prerogative to break it up in an attempt to improve the overall lineup. Ultimately, he’s fine playing with whomever the coach tells him to play with, he said.

“He’s making the lineups and he’s putting us on the ice, not me,’’ Chytil said. “So I cannot control it. Of course, it’s nice that we have chemistry like that, but when [Laviolette] decides to change the lines, we have to accept it. So I’m not focusing on this too much.’’

Quick gets the start

Jonathan Quick, who came on in relief of Igor Shesterkin in the Buffalo game and played the final 25:57, started in goal. He has started both games in Detroit, and Laviolette said that was always the plan.

“The way it had gone, we were coming off a few days off, and Shesty was on a roll, [so] this was the adjusted plan coming in here,’’ he said. “Last game went to Shesty and this one was going to go to Quickie.’’

Jones stays in lineup

D Zac Jones, who Laviolette said was one of the few bright spots in Thursday’s game, was back in the lineup for a third straight game, meaning rookie Victor Mancini, a Michigan native, was a healthy scratch for the third straight game.

Laviolette did not want to be drawn into a discussion of whether Mancini can stay up with the big club if he’s not playing regularly.

“There’s injuries that pop up, there’s things that happen . . . things are changing all the time,’’ he said. “And I’m in today mode, not a week from now . . . So we’ll just go day-to-day right now.’’

Asked if the 22-year-old Mancini is benefiting from just being with the team, even when he’s getting scratched, Laviolette suggested he is.

“You’re talking about a couple games here, but he’s played quite a bit,’’ he said. “He gets to work on things that can improve his game. He practices at an NHL pace and tries to keep himself ready for the next time he gets in the lineup.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.