Panarin, Kings end Rangers’ four-game streak with 4-1 win: Takeaways
Artemi Panarin’s return to Madison Square Garden on Monday night was a happy one for him and his new teammates with the Los Angeles Kings – and a nightmare for his old club, the New York Rangers.
The Breadman had just one assist, but the Kings rolled to a 4-1 victory that ended the Rangers’ four-game winning streak and gave LA a 3-1-1 record on its five-game road trip. Darcy Kuemper improved to 11-4-0 against the Rangers by making 21 saves.
Alex Laferriere had a goal and two assists, defenseman Mikey Anderson chipped in a goal and an assist, and Quinton Byfield had two assists for Los Angeles (28-24-15, 71 points), which pulled even in points with the Seattle Kraken for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
The speed and skill the Rangers showed while going 4-0-0 last week to move within two wins of NHL .500 were rarely in evidence. The line of First Star of the Week Alexis Lafreniere, Mika Zibanejad and Gabe Perreault was almost invisible, especially in the first two periods, and no other unit stepped up. The Kings, who entered the game tied with the New Jersey for 28th in goals with 176, outshot the Rangers 16-3 in the second period, when they scored twice and had a 30-7 margin in shot attempts.
Panarin joked before the game that he hoped longtime teammate Igor Shesterkin had a bad night in goal. Shesterkin was solid — but not up to his level of play in Saturday’s 4-2 road win against the Minnesota Wild, when he made a season-high 46 saves and was the only reason the Rangers weren’t run out of the building. He finished with 22 saves.
The Blueshirts trailed 3-0 after two periods but came out gunning in the third and got on the board when Vincent Trocheck scored a power-play goal at 2:29. They controlled play the rest of the way, holding the Kings without a shot for the first 17:15, but couldn’t score again and dropped to 6-2-2 since the Olympic break.
The highlight of the 33-minute first period came after the first media timeout 8:42 into the game, when the Rangers aired a video tribute to Panarin, laden with highlights of his nearly seven seasons on Broadway (though viewers on MSG missed much of it because the network opted to go to commercial). The Breadman got a lengthy standing ovation as he took a lap around the Garden ice; he waved to the crowd and, according to MSG’s John Giannone, skated by the Rangers bench and said “Thank you, boys!”
“Thank you very much for support — for pressure, sometimes — every game. Just for everything,” he said after the game. “A great seven years.”
Panarin also got the second assist on the period’s lone goal. Kopitar won a draw to Panarin after the Rangers’ second straight icing call. He fed Anderson, who found defense partner Drew Doughty at the right point for a shot that sailed through a maze of bodies and past Shesterkin at 13:29.
The Rangers had a 12-7 edge in scoring chances, including a 6-3 margin in high-danger opportunities, according to Natural Stat Trick. But though they attempted 22 shots, only six got through to Kuemper; his teammates blocked 10 others.
The Kings then came out flying in the second period and took command of the game by scoring twice in a 28-second span to grab a three-goal lead.
Los Angeles made it 2-0 at 4:31 during a delayed penalty to Adam Edstrom. Before Kuemper could get off the ice, Anderson went to the net and banged home the rebound of Laferriere’s shot for his fourth of the season.
Trocheck took a high-sticking penalty 17 seconds later, and the Kings extended their lead at 4:59 when Laferriere batted Kopitar’s airborne rebound into the net. Panarin started the play from his usual power-play spot along the left wall, though he didn’t receive an assist.
Shesterkin kept the Kings off the board for the rest of the period, and the Rangers finally showed up in the final 20 minutes.
Laferriere took a boarding penalty at 1:15, and the Rangers got on the board when Adam Fox’s shot went off Kuemper only to be tapped it by Trocheck. It was the Rangers’ seventh power-play goal in their past 14 opportunities and cut the deficit to 3-1.
Perreault nearly made it a one-goal game with about eight minutes left when his shot hit the right post and the crossbar but stayed out. The Rangers pulled Shesterkin with 2:32 left, but Trevor Moore’s empty-netter 44 seconds later assured the Rangers of another loss at home, dropping them to 9-16-6 on Garden ice as they await the New Jersey Devils for a nationally televised game on Wednesday.
Key takeaways after Panarin and Kings top Rangers 4-1
Welcome back Breadman
The love between the Garden Faithful and Panarin was apparent even during warmups. He led the Kings onto the ice and was flipping pucks to fans.
The best free-agent signing in Rangers history didn’t have a lot of impact on the game. Not that he didn’t try – it was obvious that Panarin was amped up to face his old team. He had to settle for a second assist on Doughty’s goal and misfired on a couple of excellent chances in the second period.
“Emotional, especially during warmup,” he said when asked about coming back to the building he’d called home since the 2019-20 season. “When the game started I was good.”
So what was it like for veteran Rangers like Mika Zibanejad to face someone who had been a teammate for nearly seven seasons?
“Definitely weird,” he said.
No-show second period
The Rangers worked hard in the first period but didn’t score. They didn’t work hard in the second period and didn’t win.
“I thought we had a pretty good first period, plenty of zone time,” captain J.T. Miller said. “But the second period got away from us. For two periods, we played pretty well. They outplayed us for 20 minutes.”
The Blueshirts had largely been able to avoid dead spots during their winning streak – or have Shesterkin bail them out. Neither happened this time. The Kings were flying, the Rangers weren’t – and it showed.
“I think we could’ve done a better job answering with a little bit of pushback to some of the adversity,” an unhappy coach Mike Sullivan said.
Classy goodbye to Kopitar
Panarin wasn’t the only one saying goodbye on Monday. Kopitar, who’s spent his entire 20-year NHL career with the Kings, is retiring at the end of the season and played his final game at the Garden. The Rangers saluted him after the game by lining up, playoff style, to shake his hand.
The warmest embraces came from former teammates Vladislav Gavrikov and Jonathan Quick. Gavrikov spent three seasons with the Kings before signing with the Rangers last summer. Quick’s goaltending and Kopitar’s two-way play were keys to the Kings’ runs to the Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014 (when they defeated the Rangers in a five-game Final).
They spent some time no doubt reminiscing before heading for their respective locker rooms.
Kopitar’s assist was the 1,309th of his career, the most in franchise history; his two-goal performance Saturday in New Jersey moved him past Marcel Dionne into first place. The next stop for Kopitar after this season will be the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“He’s a guy I looked up to,” Rangers captain J.T. Miller said. “He was an inspiration to me.”
