Why it’s so difficult to pick out the Rangers’ signature lines

If only Natural Stat Trick had been operating in the 1950s, so we would know just how many goals the Dean Prentice-Earl Ingarfield-Andy Bathgate grouping was on the ice for at five-on-five during Bathgate’s 1958-59 Hart Trophy-winning season.

Or maybe if the website’s database had been operational in the late ’60s and early ’70s, we would know whether Bulldog Line-matched set Walter Tkaczuk and Billy Fairbairn were more effective with Dave Balon, Gene Carr or Steve Vickers on their left side.

Actually, Tkaczuk-Fairbairn and their revolving left wingers are kind of tantamount to Mika Zibanejad-Chris Kreider and their rotating right wingers. Except nobody called for the Bulldog Line to be disbanded.

You may have heard head coach Peter Laviolette broke up the BFF Connection for Sunday’s match against the Islanders, assigning Kreider and Zibanejad to different units for the first time since he climbed behind the New York bench at the start of 2023-24.