Igor Shesterkin is featuring Conn Smythe-caliber goaltending in these playoffs, especially in the Eastern Conference finals, with the Panthers buzzing and growling around the goalmouth. Vicente Trocheck might have a thing or two to say about the same award if the guards can persevere in their streak with Florida and beyond.
AND Alexis Lafrenière became a central element of the Ranger offense, showing how reckless those who were losing patience with him – at the not-so-difficult age of 22 – really were. He continues to flourish on hockey’s biggest stage and is clearly a star of the future.
Now the Rangers need some of their other big names to assert themselves if they are to advance in this intense best-of-seven battle with the stalwart Panthers, who are at two games apiece with Game 5 looming at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. .
Many Rangers stars are very quiet.
Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider It is Mika Zibanejad they don’t have a single goal between them in this series and they are three of the most important cogs in the Rangers’ attack. Panarin scored 49 goals in the regular season, Kreider had 39 and Zibanejad chipped in 26. They ranked first, second and fourth, respectively, in goals for the Blueshirts this year.
Panarin, who assisted on both goals Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4, he has three assists and eight shots on goal in the series. Zibanejad had six shots on goal in Game 4, including one that hit the woodwork off the post, and 13 shots in the series. But he has zero points. Kreider, who didn’t score in Game 4, has five shots and zero points in the series.
Obviously, none of this is enough. If you’re an optimist, perhaps you can feel that the Rangers are in a good position – dead indeed, home ice, and their best shooters haven’t really contributed yet. Sounds good, doesn’t it? And the Blueshirts got offensive contributions from elsewhere on the roster, including big goals from Barclay Goodrow It is Alex Wennberg.
But it would certainly be easier if Panarin, Kreider and Zibanejad started scoring as well. Even Shesterkin can’t save everything, so a few goals would be nice.
Florida’s strong anticipation did an excellent job of locking the Rangers into their own zone throughout the series, which may explain why the Blueshirts had trouble finding an offensive rhythm. At one point in the third period of Game 4, Florida held them without a shot on goal for about 15 minutes.
It has been difficult for the Rangers to move the puck up the ice consistently, although they have had some interesting sequences, especially in Game 3 where they broke through the neutral zone and Lafrenière scored his first goal of the series. At one point on Tuesday, looking for a spark, Laviolette promoted Kaapo Kakko to the first line with Kreider and Zibanejad and moved Jack Roslovic down in rotation. But the Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière line was responsible for Ranger’s two goals in the game.
Who could blame the coach for changing personnel to try to find a shake-up? The Rangers may have played their best period of the series in the first, taking a 1-0 lead on a Trocheck goal. But then they failed in the second – Shesterkin was under siege and allowed two goals and the Rangers trailed 2-1. They probably would have gone on for more than that if Shesterkin hadn’t been upside down.
The Rangers scored the equalizer in the third period, but Florida kept the pressure on and the Panthers won quickly in overtime, scoring on the power play 72 seconds into the extra period after Blake Wheeler took a penalty. It wasn’t Wheeler’s faultreally – a Zibanejad offer on the other end of the line led to a run in Florida and Aleksandr Barkov had the puck and was running toward Shesterkin. Wheeler hooked him on a play where the Panthers perhaps could have been awarded a penalty.
They didn’t need it – one of their stars, Sam Reinhart, marked the winner.
With the Eastern Conference finals decided by whoever can win two of the next three games, now the Rangers need their stars to make big plays like this.
Can Panarin, Kreider and Zibanejad light the bulb?
