Artemi Panarin of the Rangers made a number of forgettable errors in Game 4.
One of the Rangers’ heroes from Thursday night was among the losers from Saturday night’s farce.
Artemi Panarin was the one who struck a knife into the hearts of the Hurricanes two nights ago inside the dejected PNC Arena. Panarin’s goal in overtime gave the Rangers a 3-0 series advantage.
That occurred when Panarin, facing his colleagues in the locker room after regulation ended, urged the devastated PNC Arena fans not to be discouraged by the fact that Carolina had tied the game with six or five goals and stayed “elastic” in overtime.
The Rangers were defeated 4-3 by Carolina on Saturday night at PNC Arena in Game 4. Despite falling behind by 2 goals at the beginning of the third period, the game suddenly altered significantly. A distinct tale for them, particularly for Panarin.
Without Evgeni Kuznetsov’s help, the Hurricanes took an early 1-0 lead just 1:51 into the game, which was detrimental to the Rangers’ morale. After Tony DeAngelo, a former Rangers defenseman, botched the pass A blue line, Panarin waited a bit longer to get to the puck.
After Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba was unable to remove Jordan Staal from the crease, this resulted in Stephen Noesen’s goal, giving the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead at 6:33 of the first period.
Noesen scored on the rebound after Carolina center Martin Necas shot a free puck at Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin.
At 1:33, following Noesen’s score, Panarin arrived a bit late for his shift and then took a poor angle on Hurricanes center Jack Guentzel behind the net, allowing the Rangers to cut Carolina’s lead to 2-1.
Sebastian Aho was found in the slot by Guentzel moments later. Panarin then made a stop in front of the net, and Aho beat Shesterkin with a move over his left shoulder to give Carolina a commanding 3-1 lead.
It was the first time the Rangers had trailed by more than one goal since this season.
In a TV interview with TNT in between the first and second periods, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette stated, “We didn’t perform well defensively.”You make snap decisions, causing the puck to go behind the net. You’re behind the net and don’t lift defensively.
To be clear, the Rangers’ defeat in Game 4 may have been due to factors other than Panarin. In order to avoid making a second journey to North Carolina, they should now attempt to wrap off this series in Garden on Monday night.
However, despite their little errors, they contributed to the Rangers’ early unfavorable circumstances after two nights of making a difference in Game 3.
Following the match, Laviolette remarked, “We dug ourselves a hole early.” The chances that we left outside were extremely noisy. We must move a little more quickly on it. In terms of defense, I thought the first period could have been a little better in a few areas.”
Never one to openly criticize his players, Laviolette shrugged off any responsibility when pressed directly about Panarin’s errors.
“Listen, they have a good team too, they have strong players too,” declared the defensive coach. “It’s not just [Panarin], you lose him for a moment when he manages to get stranded on the wrong side of [Guentzel’s goal]. When it came to making decisions or ending coverage a little quicker, we could have been a little more firm.”
The Rangers’ goal in the fourth game was to eliminate whatever hope the Hurricanes had from the start.
We wanted to believe in constant pressure, and we had to accomplish it in the first quarter or we won’t be able to play any longer, Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said to TNT during the second period’s interval.
When you consider what Carolina center Martin Necas had to say about the Rangers’ top scorer prior to the game, you can understand why Panarin’s dismal start—which was not disclosed to reporters—was somewhat regretful. He’s one of those players, like in the last game [on Thursday], where you might not see him at all, and he’s already played two games when the match is over, according to Necas. “With these players, you really find out where they are, and if you don’t know, it happens.”
Rather than the other way around, Panarin was crowned by the storm tonight.
