Rangers' Will Cuylle looks forward to playing on the checking line

 When the Rangers called up prospect Brennan Othmann from their Hartford farm team to replace injured fourth-line forward Tyler Pitlick, coach Peter Laviolette had to shuffle some things around in his forward lines to find a good spot for the rookie pro.

 He settled on slotting Othmann into fellow rookie Will Cuylle’s spot on the third line, and moving Cuylle to the fourth line, which serves as the de facto checking line against other team’s top lines. And in the two games he played there, prior to Monday’s game at Madison Square Garden against the Vancouver Canucks, Cuylle seemed quite comfortable in the new spot.

 “For me it always stays the same,’’ Cuylle said after the Rangers’ morning skate at their Westchester County practice facility. “No matter what line I'm playing on, I always try to play the same game. Just physical, hard, and straightforward.’’

 Of course, playing against the high-flying Canucks represented a stiffer challenge for the Rangers than their last two opponents, Montreal and Chicago.  Vancouver’s 149 goals scored were the most in the league entering Monday, and there was a chance that Cuylle and linemates Barclay Goodrow and Jimmy Vesey might be asked to match up against Vancouver’s so-called “Lotto Line’’ of Elias Pettersson (48 points), J.T. Miller (53 points) and Brock Boeser (24 goals).

  Cuylle had an assist in each of the last two games, plus a vital screen on goalie Sam Montembeault on Adam Fox’s third-period goal to force overtime in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss in Montreal. He seemed eager to take on the Vancouver assignment.

 “Obviously they have a lot of skill, and it’ll be a good challenge,’’ he said. “But I'm always up for a good challenge.’’

 “It's definitely a big challenge,’’ Vesey said of maybe going up against Vancouver’s top three forwards. “If they're stacked on one line, you’ve just got to be careful of what you give them out there and [allow] no turnovers, odd man rushes, things like that.’’

 Vesey, who switched from left wing to right when the 6-3, 210-pound Cuylle joined the line, said he liked what he saw from the 21-year-old Toronto native, who set him up for a goal in Thursday’s 4-1 win over Chicago.

 “The weight, the style he plays, I think he fits right in,’’ Vesey said. “And he's played well both games so far.’’

 Vesey said he and Goodrow didn’t feel any particular need to instruct Cuylle how to play on a checking line when he first joined them, though he admitted if they were tasked with opposing the Canucks’ top line Monday, they might make a point to go over a few things.

 “I'm sure we'll give him some pointers before, and throughout the game,’’ he said.

 Laviolette said he didn’t believe Cuylle would need much of a tutorial, though. Cuylle plays a sound defensive game, he said, and noted that when the coaches are going over video to show players things they may have done wrong that need correcting, Cuylle seldom shows up on those videos. As such, he said, playing on a checking line won’t be any different for Cuylle than playing on any other line.

 “The game stays the same, the plan stays the same,’’ Laviolette said. “You have to understand that you're out there against a real top line, and [there are] things that you may want to avoid, or things you may want to do because you're playing against a line that really has a dynamic flair to it on the opposition. And so how you handle the puck, how you check, how you defend, I think all that comes into play. But I think he's done a really good job no matter what line he's played on.’’

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.