Strome move ‘right’ choice for Blueshirts

Moving Ryan Strome out of the middle and onto the right side will allow Lias Andersson and Boo Nieves to both line up at their natural center position for Tuesday night’s Garden match against the Red Wings.

Strome, who has played 32 straight at center since last playing the wing on Jan. 4 in Colorado, will fill out the first line beside Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. That unit has been used once before, in a 3-0 defeat in Ottawa on Nov. 29.

Brett Howden is slated to move up to the second line between Vladislav Namestnikov and Pavel Buchnevich while Andersson will be flanked by Jimmy Vesey and Brendan Lemieux and Nieves should skate on a unit with Brendan Smith and Jesper Fast.

Filip Chytil, who missed practice Monday while dealing with the flu, is not expected to play.

The decision to shift Strome, who had assumed second-line responsibility after Kevin Hayes was traded to Winnipeg, will create the opportunity for more minutes for Andersson, who was scratched in Calgary on Friday and has averaged 8:55 of ice per for his past six games on the fourth line.

Nieves gets a chance to build on what had been a string of impressive performances in a generally limited role as fourth-line winger before he sat out the past two games as a healthy scratch.

➤ The Rangers, 1-5-5 in their past 11 games, have slipped to 26th-overall, which puts the team in a pre-lottery sixth-overall draft position. Rather than attempting to compare points and games-in-hand when attempting to get a clearer picture of the forecast, it is wise to distill the teams to their record against NHL .500.

So that entering Monday’s games, the reverse order approaching the April 9 pingpong-ball exercise in Toronto, stood: 1. Ottawa (Colorado) -16; 2. Los Angeles, -13; 3. Detroit, -12; 4. Devils, -10; 5. Anaheim, -5; 6. Rangers, -3; 7. Vancouver, -2; 8. Buffalo, -1; 9. Edmonton, -1.

➤ The Blueshirts recalled winger Vinni Lettieri and defenseman John Gilmour from the AHL Wolf Pack, though it is unclear whether either will dress for Tuesday’s contest.

➤ Henrik Lundqvist will get the call against the Red Wings. Lundqvist is 2-7-3/ .912/3.00 in 12 starts since the beginning of February while Alexandar Georgiev is 4-3-3/.916/2.85 over 10 starts through that span.