Rangers mulling line changes in hopes of getting Mika Zibanejad going

Peter Laviolette hasn’t been one to completely blow up his forward lines and defensive pairings during his first two seasons coaching the Rangers, so Saturday’s practice configurations amounted to a significant shake-up.

Laviolette clearly hasn’t been happy with the team’s play over the past week, even with Friday’s 2-1 win on the back of goalie Igor Shesterkin lifting the Blueshirts to a 7-2-1 record over their first 10 games entering Sunday’s home matinee against the Islanders.

Thus, Laviolette broke up his top-line pairing of Chris Kreider and slow-starting center Mika Zibanejad, with the latter skating between Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere.

Kreider was dropped to a unit alongside Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, with second-line center Vincent Trocheck flanked by wingers Will Cuylle and Reilly Smith.

“Just to give it a change. That’s three out of four games where I don’t think we’ve taken it the way we want to offensively, so we gave it a different look in practice,” Laviolette said after the workout in Tarrytown. “Again, if we went and dominated [Friday’s] game. … We won the game, that’s good. We’re in the game-winning business.

“But I didn’t really like the way we played [Friday] night. I thought that we need to play better than what we’re playing right now. We can’t rely on Shesty the way we’re relying on him right now. We need to play a better team game.”