Peter Laviolette reunites Rangers' line combos that have history of success

Last season, when the Rangers got off to a great start and then ended up winning the Presidents’ Trophy, coach Peter Laviolette didn’t tinker much with his forward lines and defense combinations. He kept well enough alone.

But when his team wasn’t playing well a couple of weeks ago, Laviolette changed all of his lines and all of his defense pairs. And when, after a few games, the team didn’t turn its game around with the new look, he changed everything back.

When the Rangers host the San Jose Sharks Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, Laviolette will reassemble the lines he used for the first 10 games. The only change will be Jimmy Vesey, who missed the first 10 games with a lower-body injury, entering the lineup on the fourth line.

“I like the way it went last year,’’ Laviolette said at the Rangers’ optional morning skate Thursday. “I'd like to get back to that, where you're playing good hockey, and you like the way you're playing . . . And then if there's a bad game, I think you can move past that one and just say, ‘OK, we're going to come back and do it again.’ And oftentimes it corrected itself last year. So, I mean, I'd like to get to that stability again.’’

The most significant moves were reuniting wingers Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere with their center from last season, Vincent Trocheck, and putting struggling No. 1 center Mika Zibanejad back with Chris Kreider and Reilly Smith. Laviolette had broken up the third line of Will Cuylle, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, but he reunited those three a couple games ago, and they produced two goals in Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to Winnipeg.

For Thursday’s game, Laviolette also switched up his top two defense pairs, moving K’Andre Miller, who had been struggling with his longtime partner Jacob Trouba, back onto the top pair with Adam Fox, and putting Ryan Lindgren with Trouba. The pair that’s been playing the best — youngsters Zac Jones and Braden Schneider — will stay together.

“Sometimes you do something and you're affecting something else,’’ Laviolette said. “And I think there's a balance there. I think it's a case-by-case basis on those type of situations.’’

It may be coincidence, but a lot of the Rangers’ defensive struggles seemed to start when Lindgren returned to the lineup after missing the first five games of the season following jaw surgery. The 26-year-old was playing with a bulky, full face shield that may have limited his visibility somewhat, and he was certainly rusty after playing just one or two shifts in the preseason. Reintegrating him into the lineup seemed to discombobulate the defensive pairs.

But  Lindgren, who will be playing his 10th game of the season Thursday, said he believes his game is coming around. In the two previous games, he had been able to ditch the full shield for a regular eye shield, with an extra attachment that covers his chin for protection. That has made a difference, he said.

“It's a little more comfortable,’’ he said a couple days ago. “A little easier to breathe. [And it] doesn't fog up as much.’’

Lindgren said some of the team's defensive struggles may simply require players to just bear down a little more than they have been.

“I think that's part of it, just execution,’’ he said. “When we have the puck on our stick and there's plays to make, make them. And when there's not, just get them out, get it to the next layer. It's a little bit everything. It's competing, the one-on-one battles in the ‘D’ zone. It's communication, sorting things out. I Just think it's different things that we can improve on. And in every area.’’

Goodrow returns to Garden

Barclay Goodrow returned to the Garden for the first time since he was waived by the Rangers over the summer and claimed by San Jose.

“It was just a big surprise,’’ Goodrow said of the way he left the team. “I was never given any [indication] that I wouldn't be back on the team. And then that happened. But, you know, it was a while ago, I've kind of moved past it, and we're here, and excited to be in San Jose.’’

Goodrow said he had dinner Wednesday night with former teammates Fox and Panarin.

Why Mancini was sent down

Laviolette on rookie defenseman Victor Mancini going to Hartford: “Zac [Jones] came in, and I thought he played real well. And for that reason, he stayed in. So it gets to a point where . . . we, as an organization, just don't see the benefit of a young player, first-year player [in Mancini] just sitting here and not playing.’’

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.