Peter Laviolette to give Rangers' forward lines time to work things out

SEATTLE — After Wednesday’s practice, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette talked about his forward line and defense combinations and explained that his inclination generally is to give things time to work rather than making changes the minute something goes wrong.

But on Thursday night, as the Rangers were in the process of playing their worst game of the season in a disappointing 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators, Laviolette did tweak a couple of things.

He had wingers Artemi Panarin and Blake Wheeler switch spots, putting Wheeler with Panarin’s linemates, Filip Chytil and Alexis Lafreniere, and Panarin in Wheeler’s spot, with Vincent Trocheck and rookie Will Cuylle.

But when the Rangers opened their five-game road trip here Saturday night, Laviolette had his top three forward lines back the way they had started in each of the first four games. That meant Panarin was back with Chytil and Lafreniere and Wheeler was back with Cuylle and Trocheck.

“We addressed a lot of things [Friday],’’ Laviolette said after the Rangers’ morning skate at Climate Pledge Arena. “So it’s not like it went without being addressed. Because [Thursday’s game] wasn’t how we want to represent ourselves. And so we talked about a lot of things once we got in [to the hotel] from the plane. And with that, I think sometimes you need the opportunity to respond and you need to go back out there. And so it’s a chance for those guys to go back out and play a better game, feel better about their game.’’

For Chytil, keeping the lines together was especially important as he tries to adjust to playing with the creative Panarin and developing that all-important chemistry with the player who was the Rangers’ leading scorer in each of the last four seasons.

“I’m trying to play my game, [but] of course, it’s a little different when you have Bread on the ice,’’ Chytil said. “But I’ve still got to do my stuff. And I have to read Bread a little bit because I have to be always ready. Because when he has the puck, it’s always dangerous, and I have to be ready to shoot all the time.’’

Chytil entered Saturday’s game with no goals and one assist in the first four games. The Panarin-Chytil-Lafreniere line was dominant in the season-opening 5-1 win over Buffalo and had played well in the next two games. An apparent goal by Chytil in the loss to Columbus on Oct. 14 was disallowed after a coaching challenge for offside because Lafreniere was found to have entered the zone early on the possession.

Against Nashville, the line was on for the first Predators goal and Chytil and Lafreniere were on for the second goal. As a line, the trio was outscored 1-0, was outshot 5-3, generated one high-danger scoring chance and allowed three, according to Natural Stat Trick.

On the season, their analytics are mostly good, though. Their shots for/against were 25-15, scoring chances for/against were 29-18, and high-danger chances for/against were 9-8.

“The first three games, I think we played good hockey. We had a lot of chances,’’ Chytil said. “We didn’t score too many goals, but we went to the net.

“The last game, I’m not going to talk about it, because that was a bad game overall. But we just keep working on our game.’’

Staying together allows them to do that.

Laviolette did make one change to the lineup Saturday, giving goaltender Jonathan Quick his first start of the season after Igor Shesterkin started the first four games. Quick did get to play the final 26:07 of Thursday’s game after relieving Shesterkin following the Predators’ fourth goal.

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.