NASHVILLE – With two major holes still there in the Rangers lineup because of the absence of Ryan Strome and Kaapo Kakko, Rangers coach Gerard Gallant had to do some tinkering to try and find some way of filling them.
Gallant’s idea Thursday against Nashville was to put his top two forwards, Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, together on the same line. But it was the domino effect from that change that proved the winning move at Bridgestone Arena.
Alexis Lafreniere, dropped to the second line to make way for Panarin, scored the go-ahead goal off a nifty feed from Sammy Blais at 10:53 of the third period and Barclay Goodrow added an empty-netter to give the Rangers a 3-1 win over the Predators.
