Rangers’ revamped blue line could be an upgrade but needs time to gel

Just four defense pairs in the NHL have been on the ice for at least 3,600 minutes at five-on-five over the four seasons beginning in 2020-21. Two of them belong to the Rangers, who have been a study in stability on the back end.

Pretty much from the moment K’Andre Miller left Wisconsin to turn pro in 2020-21 under then-head coach David Quinn, the top four has been inviolate except to accommodate injuries. Miller has skated on the left with Jacob Trouba while Adam Fox has been on the right with Ryan Lindgren. They have been the equivalent of 1A/1B matchup pairs.

Carolina’s Brady Skjei-Brett Pesce tandem (first) and the Kings’ Drew Doughty-Mikey Andersson duo joined the two Rangers pairs with that threshold of ice time, according to Natural Stat Trick.

But partially because of the preseason upper-body injury sustained by Lindgren in the second exhibition game that landed No. 55 on IR and partially because head coach Peter Laviolette wanted to see a different look, the Blueshirts have gone with three brand new pairs for the first two games of the season.

The first pair features Miller on the left with Fox in which the club’s two most mobile and offensively gifted defensemen have been united. There has been talk about this look for a couple of years, and before Wednesday the young defensemen had been on for 337:34 at five-on-five the previous four seasons but had only started as a pair in five previous games.

The second pair had Trouba on the right side but with righty Braden Schneider moving to his off side for the first time in a 207-game NHL career that began midway through 2021-22. The move surely was prompted by the head coach wanting his four top defensemen to comprise the top-four but the ascension of rookie righty — or righty rookie? — Victor Mancini was also a significant factor in the decision.