The Subtle But Important Line Change Coming Against Kings

New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy altered his bottom-six configuration and there's something important to point out.

New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy is making a subtle yet significant line change against the Los Angeles Kings.

Per Newsday’s Andrew Gross and the New York Post’s Ethan Sears, here’s how the Islanders will line up (if Kyle MacLean can go against LA after missing Sunday’s game due to illness):

Duclair-Horvat-Palmieri

Lee-Pageau-Holmstrom

Engvall-Cizikas-Tsyplakov

Fasching-MacLean-Gatcomb

The bolded line is the one I want to focus on.

Engvall has been skating on the fourth line for a while now, but Roy is electing to swap him and Fasching for tonight’s game.

“I just hope that’s going to bring the spark he needs,” Roy said on Tuesday morning. “I just hope that Pierre is going to drive the net more, bring pucks to the net more, be more involved physically. So hopefully, giving him the chance to play with Casey and Tsyippy will give him that spark.” (H/t @NYIslanders)

While Roy clearly wants more from Engvall — this has been a storyline since Engvall signed his seven-year extension — this subtle lineup change seems to be more about the skater on Cizikas’ right and here’s why.