Rangers coach David Quinn, who never has been shy about changing his lines when things aren’t going well, said before Friday's game against the Islanders that he hadn’t decided whether to move rookie Vitali Kravtsov from the fourth line to the second line, with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome.
Ultimately, Quinn chose to stick with Colin Blackwell on the right wing of the Panarin-Strome line for the third straight game.
The 28-year-old Blackwell scored a goal in each of the previous two games, but Quinn had put Kravtsov on the line in the second and third periods of Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, replacing Blackwell.