There’s three players that will need to elevate their respective games if the New York Rangers are to get past the Carolina Hurricanes in Round Two and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
After beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games in Round One, with Artemi Panarin scoring the winner in Overtime, the Blueshirts will now look to elevate their game in an attempt to reach the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2014-15, when they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games.
It will be this team’s biggest test of the entire year given that the Hurricanes are an absolute wagon and they are very much built to win right now. Boasting good goaltending, a number of studs on the backend, a boatload of elite offensive weapons and toughness up and down the lineup, the Canes have the pieces to win the Stanley Cup this year and they also had the Rangers’ number during the regular-season.
However, New York is hardly short of talent and, as was proven throughout Round One, this team refuses to quit and they won’t be an easy out, no matter how good the opposition are. They’ve got the goaltending, they have the firepower and they have difference makers, so this series really does have all the ingredients to be a classic.
The good news for Rangers fans too is that there were certain players who didn’t have the best series against Pittsburgh and, if they can step it up in the Second Round, then that could give this team a significant advantage. So, with that being said, let’s take a look at three Blueshirts who need to do a lot more against the Canes…
1. Artemi Panarin
Much of the narrative around Panarin heading into Round Two will be his heroics in Game Seven against the Penguins when he scored the game-winner in Overtime. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are littered with Game Seven heroes, and the stud forward has now joined that prestigious list.
However, Panarin’s ultimate clutch goal was in some ways just putting lipstick on a pig in regards to his overall performance in Round One – it wasn’t great.
He recorded seven points (three goals, four assists) in seven games but was absent for large chunks of games, his playmaking ability just wasn’t there, he suffered bad puck luck, he was caught in too many neutral zone battles and, perhaps most worrying was the 18 giveaways he had throughout the series.
To put it simply; Panarin did not deliver the type of performances we expect to see from him in the postseason, but he got away with it thanks to some elite goaltending from Igor Shesterkin, the kids making a real statement in their first trip to the playoffs and Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider coming up clutch in the final couple of games.
However, if the Rangers are to survive a war of attrition against a Hurricanes team that arguably has as much firepower as they do, they will need Panarin to be elite Panarin and actually make a significant impact on each game with both his ability to shoot the puck and his ability to be able to create something out of nothing. With how crucial special teams are in the postseason too, the winger will need to be a lot better on the man advantage given that he had just one power play goal in the entire series against the Penguins.
The hope is that his game-winner in Game Seven will serve as a major spark for Panarin, and his resurgence or continued struggles could prove to be the biggest factor for the Rangers in Round Two.