Rangers Resort To Failed Old Form During Loss To Kings In Artemi Panarin’s Return

The issue, Mike Sullivan said in the aftermath, was one that kept popping up all season. The Rangers needed to change lines on the team’s terms — not on the individual players’ terms. Long changes have burned them before and morphed into an ongoing conversation, and after points in eight of nine games following the Olympic break and a four-game winning streak, it served as a glaring reminder Monday that the Rangers were back. 

As the Kings carried the puck into their zone less than five minutes into the second period, the Blueshirts had only three skaters back. When Adam Edstrom wiped out along the boards, that became two. The Kings had five. And when Igor Shesterkin allowed a rebound after Los Angeles’ initial shot, Mikey Anderson stood unmarked by the far post to deposit the rebound into the net and give the Kings a two-goal lead in the Rangers’ eventual 4-1 loss Monday at the Garden, where the return of Artemi Panarin following his trade last month was just about all that Blueshirts fans had to cheer for. 

It was part of a second period that Adam Fox called “some of the worst hockey, I think, of our season.” The Rangers were outshot 16-3. Booing from fans followed the frame. And if the last three weeks served as the Rangers teasing that they might’ve somehow, finally, in the most too-little-too-late way possible, turned a corner, this loss — encapsulated by the second period — served as a reality check. 

“We have two guys go to the bench and change in the middle of the neutral zone and we don’t have the puck,” Sullivan said. “I feel like that’s a conversation that we’ve had all year, and we’re still learning a hard lesson.” 

It was fitting, in a way, that all this unfolded with Panarin back on Broadway for the first time since becoming the major domino to fall after The Letter 2.0. Rangers fans cheered for him at the end of warmups, when, from near center ice, he flipped a puck into the Kings’ net and then the Rangers’ net and then veered toward the tunnel. They gave him an ovation again during the first timeout, when a tribute played on the scoreboard to welcome back the former franchise cornerstone who arrived as a marquee free agent in 2019 and then matched expectations for the next six-plus seasons. 

Panarin even picked up an assist on the first goal of the game when Drew Doughty’s shot from the point found its way through a cluster of traffic and past Shesterkin with 6:31 remaining in the first period. 

The Rangers had their chances, even if the shot attempts didn’t rack up and they failed to score three goals in a game for the first time this month. Gabe Perreault nearly ripped a shot past Darcy Kuemper in the opening frame. Jaroslav Chmelar made a strong move toward the net with his backhand and had open space, but he lifted it wide. 

Eventually, the Kings, suddenly in the middle of a playoff race in the Western Conference and fueled by their recent pickup, found a way to add to their lead. Anderson flipped the rebound past Shesterkin. Alex Laferriere whacked home another rebound just 11 seconds into a power play and 28 seconds after Anderson’s goal when Vincent Trocheck was called for high-sticking. 

“I think we could’ve done a better job just answering with a little bit of pushback to some of the adversity,” Sullivan said. 

Trocheck finally got the Rangers on the board 2:27 into the third when he tipped a Fox shot from the point on the power play that dribbled five-hole past Kuemper. Perreault, with just over eight minutes left, hit the post and crossbar on the same shot, nearly giving the Blueshirts a second goal. Urho Vaakanainen flung a puck toward the net that slowly slid untouched across the crease behind Kuemper, but the Rangers couldn’t convert. J.T. Miller felt they could’ve easily tied the game during that final frame. 

By that point, the Rangers had regressed to the mean of their season, returning to the form currently occupying the basement of the Eastern Conference. One goal wasn’t enough to save them. Too many of the mistakes that haunted them throughout the season had already reappeared. 

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“The second kinda got away from us,” Miller said. “They outplayed us in the second period. Wasn’t our best. But I thought the response in the third was really good again. … The body of work’s been good lately. I don’t think tonight was a step back by any means.”