1/1/23 | Jaro Halak is in net today and Jonny Brodzinski is scratched for Lafreniere. (MSG)

12/31/22 | Alexis Lafreniere will play tomorrow night against the Panthers. (NYR)

At Rangers practice on Saturday the lines being used were (Stephenson):

• Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Kaapo Kakko
• Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Vitali Kravtsov
• Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil, Jimmy Vesey
• Sammy Blais, Barclay Goodrow, Jonny Brodzinski, Julien Gauthier

Gerard Gallant spoke after practice and said (NYR):

• Where do you see the team right now, “It’s a work in progress, but I like our pieces. We’re going to be a good hockey team. We gotta be more consistent, like I said a number of times, but it’s not a whole lot different than a lot of teams in our position. You look at the standings and it’s pretty tight. We can be better and we know that and we think we will be better.”
• What do you think is missing from how the team played last year, “You can’t do that for 82-games. I was talking to my buddy the other night, Jon Cooper, and they are a pretty good team, went to the Finals three years in a row and he says ‘I keep juggling my lineup’ and I said, ‘well, funny you mention that…(laugh) you don’t read the NY papers?’ (laugh) But it’s true, you keep trying to find the right mix for certain nights and that is the way it goes. They have a veteran team and a stable team, but it happens everywhere, with every team, you just try and find the perfect things and it’s never going to be perfect, but you work hard and compete hard and try to find ways to win as many games as you can.”
• On Lafreniere, “he’s going back in….it’s part of building a young man. He’s 21-years old, played parts of three years in the league, obviously with Covid so it’s not really…it’s part of the game. Kaapo sat out games before, people sit out games. It’s not a big deal. Sometimes the kid might say, ‘well, I’m gonna come back and play real well.’ We’ll see what happens. Maybe he’ll say it’s a wakeup call, maybe he can say what he wants and that is fine. I didn’t like the way he played last game, the 3-4 games prior to that weren’t great either, they were okay, not great. Sometimes it’s be more consistent, play better. He wants the same thing, he’s a good kid, we like him. It’s not like we don’t like the kid, it’s…they are lessons learned and I was fortunate enough to play pro hockey and I got sat out some games too….shake it off.”
• Do you expect the same from Jimmy Vesey when you move him from line to line, “I want him to be the same player no matter what line, same with Barclay Goodrow. He plays the same game. Sometimes…we are still looking at different combinations. Kravtsov is one of those kids we haven’t seen a lot, give him some opportunities in the right spots and hopefully he takes advantage of his opportunities. They are a work in progress and some of our young guys are works in progress. They are not veteran guys…does Barclay Goodrow deserve to be on the fourth line? No, he doesn’t. For the numbers he put up and the way he’s played and made other lines better. We’re still trying to build on that and I’ve said to you, it’s never been a perfect lineup. I’m trying to win games every night and you try and fill some different spots. Jimmy Vesey’s played really well sometimes on the top lines and, again, we’re trying to move people in and out of spots.”
• Do you look for Vesey’s defensive game or production from him, “Depends where he’s at. Jimmy doesn’t play and PP, he kills penalties and I’m thinking he’s doing a good job with that, we’re happy with him there. He’s come in…a player I didn’t know real well, I knew he had some skill, could score some goals. Last year wasn’t great for him, this year it started off real good. I want him to be an important player and he’s one of those guys in the mix that can play anywhere on the right side, with the top guys and right now he found himself the other night on the fourth line left wing. It’s not because I don’t like Jimmy, but it’s because of what we are trying to do….I keep saying it, I don’t like changing my lines a lot, but it’s the way it is.”
• On line changes and changing Kravtsov, Chytil and Gauthier from last game, “In my mind I have my lineup, that perfect lineup if everybody is healthy and playing good, I have that lineup and that is not part of that, Laffy is part of that and Kravy can be up on the other side. That is what I want to see. Sometimes it’s not going to be there that night….but I agree with you, they were pretty good, Kravy was great the first 30 minutes, I loved the way he played and then after that I thought they fell off a little bit, but I thought they played great the first 30.”