NEW YORK _ On a night that began with intrigue about whether Chris Kreider would play, and what the Rangers' line combinations would look like, one question was answered emphatically.
The trio of Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich is worth keeping together.
That threesome dates back to last season _ and they've been the Blueshirts' most productive and active line lately. They had a hand in four of the five goals in Wednesday's 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Madison Square Garden, combining for seven points with each of the three scoring a goal.
Buchnevich was benched toward the end of Monday's 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars, which raised questions possibly supplanting him with rookie Kaapo Kakko. But throughout the ups-and-downs of Buchnevich's season _ and occasional public criticism of his game from David Quinn _ the Rangers coach has also shown that he's willing to throw him right back into the fire.
Meanwhile, Kreider somehow missed only one game after taking a knee to head from Zibanejad on Saturday in Detroit. He step right back into the lineup Wednesday and resumed his role as a driving force with a goal and an assist during a six-second stretch at the end of the first period.
The other lines were shuffled a few times during the game, which began with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome playing on separate lines for the first time since October.
Filip Chytil was given a brief opportunity to play center alongside Panarin and Jesper Fast, but the experiment didn't last long. Chytil scored the Rangers' first goal 8:50 into the first period while playing with Kakko and Brendan Lemieux, with Strome, Panarin and Fast reunited quickly.
