Kevin Shattenkirk
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

New York Rangers head coach David Quinn isn’t waiting for things to turn around including the status of Kevin Shattenkirk.

Frank Curto

New York Rangers head coach David Quinn appears to be changing lines and personnel again as he looks to break the three-game losing streak his Blueshirts are currently facing.

The lines at Tuesday’s practice had Filip Chytil on the fourth line centering Vladislav Namestnikov and Vinni Lettieri. Brett Howden was moved to the third line between Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider. Jesper Fast skated on the wing with Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich. Jimmy Vesey, Kevin Hayes and Ryan Spooner made up the second line.

Chytil moving to the fourth line is really no big detriment to how he has played so far. Howden has started the season of very well and Quinn is trying to utilize the center in a bigger role to jump-start some of the other players as the team looks for scoring and chemistry.

The big surprise is on defense where struggling Kevin Shattenkirk seems to be the odd man out for at least Thursday’s game against San Jose at MSG.

The pairings at practice were Brady Skjei with Adam McQuaid, Brendan Smith and Neal Pionk, and Marc Staal with Tony DeAngelo. Shattenkirk was paired with Fredrik Claesson as the extras.

Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post tweeted on Tuesday what Shattenkirk thought about sitting out the game Thursday as a healthy scratch,

” I think all the ‘D’ have earned a spot on the roster and I’m probably the guy that needs to fight a little bit harder to get my spot back….This is probably a good little kick to get me going and get me out of this.”

Shattenkirk has struggled in the first three games of the season and now has fallen out of the top six for the time being. In Carolina, on Sunday night the defenseman saw limited time on the ice as Quinn dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards.

The new head coach has not been happy with the overall play of the team so far and has shown he has no problem moving anyone on the team to the bench. Such was the case on a Saturday night in Buffalo as Kevin Hayes was on the bench for most of the second and third period.

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A graduate of St. John's University class of '91. I have been a fan of the New York Rangers since the days of Peter Puck. Founder of Ranger Proud, the Facebook page that covers all news, notes, pre /post-game stats, and player quotes. I can be reached at [email protected]