Rangers' Vitali Kravtsov getting another look on one of the top lines
Vitali Kravtsov of the Rangers skates against the Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 23. Credit: Getty Images
DETROIT — With his team mired in a three-game winless streak, the last two of which included blown two-goal leads, Gerard Gallant changed his forward lines for the second straight game as the Rangers took on the Red Wings on Thursday night in the opener of a two-game Father’s Weekend road trip.
The key move was reuniting the Kid Line of Alexis Lafrenière, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko that had been so electric for the Rangers in last spring’s playoffs. Putting Lafrenière, 21, Kakko, 21, and Chytil, 23, back together was always a move Gallant had in his back pocket, to be pulled out at a time when he needed something to spark the team. With the Rangers 0-2-1 in their last three games and 6-5-3 overall, Gallant apparently felt the time was now.
To make it happen, he needed to move some other pieces around. Jimmy Vesey took Kakko’s spot with the first line Thursday, playing with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. Rookie Vitali Kravtsov — who had no points and had missed nine of the team’s first 14 games because of injuries — took Lafrenière’s spot on the second line with Artemi Panarin and center Vincent Trocheck. Kravtsov had started there in training camp and in the opening game of the season, but after he got hurt, Lafrenière was moved into the spot and played well there.
Kravtsov, 22, knows that getting a place on one of the top two lines is a major opportunity for him, especially after his slow start. But a month into the season, the timing of the move might be right.
At Thursday’s morning skate, Kravtsov, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2018 draft, said that even before all the injuries, he had been nervous coming into training camp. He came with baggage he was trying to overcome, having chosen to return to Russia when the Rangers sent him to the minor leagues at the start of the 2019-20 season and doing the same thing again last year when the team assigned him to the minors at the start of the season.
So after patching things up with the organization and signing a one-year, $875,000 contract over the summer, Kravtsov came to camp feeling pressure to prove himself, and he clearly was pressing.
In a way, though, the injuries that kept him out of the lineup may have relieved some of the pressure Kravtsov was feeling. The time off seemed to allow him to relax, catch his breath and really learn Gallant’s system. On Thursday, he said he feels “more confident every day.’’
“It’s hard, because in Russia I can be allowed to skate, like everywhere, to pick up the puck,’’ he said. “This hockey style is so different.’’
Kravtsov said he’d been running around the ice in games because he was “trying to show my skills every day.’’ But that running around is what got him hurt, he said.
“You don’t think much when you’re on the ice and just try to do your stuff — be first on the pucks,’’ he said. “And you don’t think about getting injured or something like that, and you don’t play smart. And when you play smart, you can win the battles. I’m not the toughest guy in this league, and I can be smarter in the corners.’’
Now, Kravtsov said, he’s being more patient and is trying “to build my game.’’
“[I’m trying to] find that way to score the goals, get some good shifts,’’ he said. “I don’t think about [scoring] points right now. I know they’re going to come, and I just want to work hard, help the team win.’’
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.
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