New York Rangers: If It Really Is Broken, Don't Fix It? Sort Of.

Well, now I'm just confused.  The Rangers roll four solid lines, night after night, on their way to a four game winning streak in which several players started to heat up.  Fine.

Tom Renney, as I noted yesterday, goes ahead and switches up the lines and loses a game that should have been won.  In fact it was won!  Until a collapse in the final seven and a half minutes of the game.  Not fine.

The Rangers had an off day Sunday, which is rare after disappointing losses.  My guess would have been that when they resumed skating at the MSG training center today in Westchester, the lines would have reverted to the following:

Naslund-Drury-Zherdev
Voros-Dubinsky-Prucha/Fritsche
Dawes-Gomez-Callahan
Sjostrom-Betts-Orr

Again, fine.

But today at practice, as the Rangers were getting ready for tomorrow nights tilt against the Islanders, the lines were different.  Again!

Thanks to Sam Weinman, over at Rangers Report, we know that the Dubinsky and Betts lines will remain in tact.  But Scott Gomez will now center a line of Ryan Callahan and Markus Naslund, while Chris Drury will center Nigel Dawes and Petr Prucha.

Prucha played well last week against the Islanders, skating hard, forechecking, even drawing a crucial third period penalty.  Here's to hoping he gets more than another one-game look from the coaching staff.

But one thing is for certain.  The line of Naslund-Drury-Zherdev that had been working so well for several games is now spread across three lines.  Again, not fine. 

Make up your mind coach.  If you want success, stay with your lines that brought you success.  But if you want to try out new lines, don't give up on them after one game.   

Until next time...