Exclusive | Rangers Reilly Smith-Vincent Trocheck combo rediscovering its Panthers past
When head coach Peter Laviolette rejiggered his top-nine line combinations for Sunday’s match against the Islanders, he kept two-man combinations: wingers Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere; center and winger Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko; and center and winger Vincent Trocheck and Reilly Smith … from eight and nine years ago, when they were linemates in Florida.“I think knowing him off the ice makes a bigger difference than anything, just having that comfortability and being able to talk to him about whatever it is on the ice,” Trocheck told The Post ahead of Thursday’s Garden match against the Sabres.“That goes a long way.“It’s been so long since we played on the ice together, I don’t know if you could say that us playing together in 2016 and 2017 makes everything go back to what it was.
It’s going to take some time but as I said, knowing him as a person off the ice and being able to talk about things definitely helps.”Remember the hype when Panarin and Patrick Kane rejoined forces a couple of years ago after forming such a dynamic duo in Chicago? Well, A) it didn’t work at all; and B) there’s none of that hype accompanying this move.So never mind.Smith has been exactly as advertised since coming to New York from Pittsburgh in a July trade, posting eight points (2-6).
He’s diligent, responsible and has flashed a decent amount of skill, skating for 10 games with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider before shifting to the right with Trocheck and left wing Will Cuylle.Maybe it’s not Jussi Jokinen-Trocheck-Smith for the 2015-16 Panthers with the line on for 26 goals scored and 10 against with an expected goal percentage of 58.84, but maybe it would amount to more than that if this unit remains intact.The Panthers, coached by Gerard Gallant, won their division with a first line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr.The Puddy Tats were beaten in the first round by the Islanders, and 22 games into the following season, Ga...