The more things change, the less.

That encapsulates perhaps the most dramatic difference between the way Gerard Gallant ran the bench as head coach last season and the manner in which Peter Laviolette has conducted it this year.

Through the first 35 games of 2022-23, during which the Blueshirts went 19-11-5, Gallant employed 41 different line combinations as starting units. Mika Zibanejad skated between six sets of wingers while Vincent Trocheck and Filip Chytil each had 10 different sets of wingers. The club used 15 different fourth-line combinations with three different centers.

Laviolette, on the other hand, has used a sum of 16 different line combinations as starting units over his first 35 games while the team has gone 25-9-1. Zibanejad has skated with three sets of wingers, Trocheck, two. Chytil skated on one line in 10 games before leaving the lineup on Nov. 2. The fourth line has remained inviolate since Chytil left the lineup.