Maybe it’s a matter of correcting for limited rest. Perhaps it’s all about improving a struggling power play. Then again, it could be about “big boy pants.”
Either way, New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault is shaking up his team’s roster heading into Game 3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday after losing 3-0 in Game 2 on Sunday.
He’s taking John Moore, Dan Carcillo and Derek Dorsett out of the lineup. In their place, he’s moving in Raphael Diaz, J.T. Miller and Jesper Fast.
In broader terms, that would indicate that the Rangers are injecting a little skill into the lineup at the expense of quite a bit of snarl.
Here are a few observations from beat reporters regarding the moves and general changes.
Raphael Diaz no doubt inserted because of his power play shot, as some/many of you suggested via Twitter earlier today. Good call, y'all.
— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) May 5, 2014
#NYR #PIT Another change: Vigneault starting with a newly-configured line of Hagelin-Richards-Nash
— Katie Strang (@KatieJStrang) May 5, 2014
#NYR #PIT Vigneault making some sweeping changes for Game 3. Keeps saying team isn't tired, but hard to imagine he doesn't want fresh legs
— Katie Strang (@KatieJStrang) May 5, 2014
We’ll see if those tweaks pay off.