Kaapo Kakko gets second chance on Rangers' top line

TAMPA – As the No. 1 pick overall in 2020 was getting a message by being left out of the lineup for Thursday’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the No. 2 overall pick in 2019 was getting quite a different message by being elevated to the top forward line.

“Yeah, just like that,’’ Kaapo Kakko said when asked if he viewed his new assignment as an opportunity. “First line, you know? … Hopefully, I can stay there. That’s the mindset.’’

While his former Kid Line linemate, Alexis Lafrenière, was scratched for the second time in his career Thursday, Kakko was a beast on the ice, dominating possession behind the net in the offensive zone, and working hard to create chances for himself and his new linemates, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider.

Kakko had started the season with Kreider and Zibanejad, and by his own estimation, he was playing the best hockey of his NHL career at that time. But for all his puck possession, and all the chances he was creating for himself and his linemates, he wasn’t piling up goals and points.

“I feel like I played good with them [before]; I just didn't score,’’ said Kakko, who has nine goals and six assists this season.

With the team was treading water for the first month or so, coach Gerard Gallant started changing the lines. Veteran Jimmy Vesey took Kakko’s spot on the top line, and Gallant reunited the Kid Line – Kakko, Lafrenière and Filip Chytil.

But Gallant couldn’t find the consistent play he was looking for and kept trying different combinations. He put the Kid Line together, broke them up, and put them back together. He separated Kreider and Zibanejad and tried Zibanejad with Artemi Panarin. Then, after an ugly loss to Washington on Tuesday, he came back to Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko.

“They trust me,’’ Kakko said, when asked why he thought it worked with Kreider and Zibanejad before. “They know what I can do, especially down low, behind the net in the ‘O’ zone. Kreids is very good in front of the net. I know that, and Mika knows that also. So we try to find him, and also Mika.’’

The Rangers’ lone goal Thursday came about in part because of Kakko’s play behind the net. Zibanejad had fired a shot that went high and wide, but Kakko retrieved it behind the net and passed out front. The puck got knocked around but made it to Zibanejad in the slot, and he fired a shot home to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 12:45 of the first period.

“I feel like he does that no matter who he plays with,’’ Zibanejad said of Kakko’s behind-the-net presence. “That's obviously the thing that you want to see from a guy like that – that he doesn't change the way he plays because he plays with us, or plays with someone else. You want him to grow in his own game, and I think he's done that. And having that said, you're trying to play off of that and try to put him in a situation where he can use that, and [we] get available for him.’’

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.