I think Lafreniere and Panarin have been too good together, I think run Panarin - Zibanejad - Lafreniere on the first line, Kreider - Trocheck - Kakko on the second line. That being said, I have seen all but one game this year and I have not noticed Kakko for the life of me. I'm really cheering for the kid but he just hasn't been up to snuff, period.

Yea that works too. There’s proof that Mika and Kreider just aren’t clicking at 5v5 but they make up for it on the powerplay

Kakko on the other hand just needs to get going in general. There main difference between Laffy and Kakko right now is simply confidence

Laffy and Panarin are playing very well together, so why on earth move him to Mika's line?

Yea I know and I hate to break them up, but if Panarin and Laffy are shutdown, then who’s gonna score? Gotta get everyone going

Kreider has 9 goals and 3 assists and Mika has started slow but has 2 goals and 8 assists, so it's not like they are hurting the team, and Mika will break out. They also just got Wheeler on their line so maybe that kick starts Mika a little too. What they need is more scoring from Goodrow/Bonino/Vesey/Pitlick, not a ton, but they need to chip in some. Now that Laffy appears to be breaking out, I would not move him off of Panarin's line.

I dont care about the 4th line, their role is mainly defensive and play hard minutes in the D zone

I’m more concerned about Kakko, Kreider and Mika not preforming well at even strength. Yea Kreider and Mika have all those points but majority of it is NOT at even strength

They’re 1st in metro and it doesn’t hurt to experiment. You need to experiment incase things go bad and need a backup plan like for the playoffs

Look at Kreider and Mika's possession stats....they are controlling the puck, they are just not burying enough shots yet, but that will change. Mika will be in the 40 goal range as usual and Kreider may score 50 again, so they will be fine. Laffy is just starting to have real success with Panarin and Chytil/Trocheck, so IMO they should keep building that up, not "experimenting" with it. Just my opinion.

Possession is great and all, but stats matter. How many of these games do the NYR lose if they don’t get a powerplay or Panarin and the 2nd line don’t show up. It’s just like the kid line, they had good underlying analytics but they weren’t scoring so it’s pointless

This team can’t rely on goaltending, powerplays and the 2nd line only. It’ll bite them in the ass

I agree with that for sure, but at the same time, I am saying don't break up what is working, especially for Laffy, to try to spark other lines. Give Wheeler some time on that line and see what happens.