The New York Rangers lost 5-2 to the Islanders in the front end of the two teams’ back-to-backs on Wednesday. That defeat and the game overall were by far secondary stories. Artemi Panarin was held out for roster management / trade purposes and has played his last game as a Blueshirt.
Game recap:
Rangers line up against the Islanders:
Miller – Zibanejad – Perreault
Cuylle – Trocheck – Lafrenière
Othmann – Laba – Raddysh
Brodzinski – Carrick – Rempe
Gavrikov – Schneider
Robertson – Borgen
Vaakanainen – Morrow
Martin
[Quick]
A Few Thoughts
1) The game: making this quick because honestly, given what else is ongoing, this gets pushed to the background. The Islanders dominated action, as somewhat expected, with the Blueshirts missing their best forward, defenseman and goalie. The Rangers didn’t post their first shot of the game until 12:23 had elapsed and totaled just 16 for the game.
Despite that weak output, the Rangers were only down 2-1, thanks to Mika Zibanejad’s PPG. Nearly halfway through the second. The game completely turned when the Blueshirts picked up three penalties on the same sequence. Two by Sam Carrick, the first of which was a weak call when the Islander stepped on his stick, and one by Matt Rempe, who then was basically tackled with no corresponding call. The Rangers killed out two of the penalties but couldn’t make it through the third without giving up a tally. Just 47 seconds later, the home team scored again and it was all she wrote.
2) Panarin: We knew this day was coming. However, the manner is which it went down yesterday was surprising. About an hour before game time the Rangers announced Panarin would sit for roster management / trade related purposes, essentially ending his Rangers career. Panarin practiced yesterday morning with Jonny Brodzinski staying on the ice late, so the presumption was the Bread man would play. The decision to sit Panarin makes sense, just coming as it did was the surprising part.
Panarin will go down as one of the best free agents in team history. The only one who is close or could be viewed as better was Adam Graves, who was signed as a free agent in 1991. Graves has the playoff pedigree and won a Cup, which could give him the edge. Panarin is more of a playmaker than Graves, who scored in the dirty areas. Bread has his one postseason moment, the Game 7 overtime, game winner versus the Penguins.
Where Panarin lands remains to be seen. Depending on which insider you believe, Panarin either requires or doesn’t require an extension as part of approving a trade. If he received an extension as part of a sign-and-trade, the return would be higher. Plus, he only wants to stay on the east coast or would okay trades elsewhere. Shang Peng, who is very plugged in for the Sharks, wrote early this morning that Panarin would consider San Jose, which has been a team floated as a possible match.
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