No one expects to see Artemi Panarin in nightly highlight clips, but these are the playoffs and this is the 2024 Rangers.
So when the referees didn’t see or didn’t want to call TJ Oshie’s blatant high stick that caught Panarin in the face with 6:44 left in the second period, the No. 10 didn’t cry. Number 10 didn’t whine. No.10 didn’t ask anyone else for help.
Panarin addressed this problem himself, and it’s true that he entered the third by swooping down and leveling Oshie high in the open ice, rather than by hanging or toe-draging through the defense’s legs. 6:47 Could catch the winger’s head with an elbow.
Oshie was sent to a room for examination by the league’s concussion monitors. After reviewing the play, Panarin was not penalized at all. It was like he was suddenly Tom Wilson with a get-out-of-jail-free card, except he was Panarin for the 2024 playoffs.
This battle was joined by Tuesday’s second game at the Garden, where the Blueshirts defeated the Caps 4-3 in a fast-paced game in a much more intense environment than Sunday’s first game. finished. From start to finish in this controversial game, the Rangers held a 2-0 advantage in the series starting Friday in D.C.
Pretty didn’t play in this game, unless you want to cite Jack Roslovic’s pretty power-play snipe and Quandre Miller’s pretty short-handed goal as a preview. And although there was more open ice this time than in the season opener, the battle was decided in the corners, at the front, and along the boards. The game was decided in a desperate moment with the puck tied 50-50.
The game was finally decided for good in the final moments when the Rangers were stuck on their own side, playing 5-on-6 defense after the Caps pulled their goaltender. Jimmy Vesey’s shot went wide, and the puck returned to the New York end after landing, but never left, like a rugby scrum breaking in front of Igor Shesterkin, several at a time. It was moving centimeter by centimeter.
“There were a lot of ugly games. Obviously there were some good plays, but most of the games were muddy, scraping, scraping, tougher games,” Jacob Trouba said. “It seemed like there was more of a playoff atmosphere.”
Jason Suzens, New York Post
The Rangers became a more difficult team to play against as the season progressed. The midseason recalls of Matt Lempe and Adam Edstrom were a big part of that. They started playing with a more aggressive attitude. That’s how they played this time.
I had some skills. Mika Zibanejad scored on a power play, stripping Alex Ovechkin in the neutral zone and setting up Miller’s shorthanded goal at 16:52 of the second for the game-winner. But this wasn’t a night for the seasoned Blueshirts to play tic-tac-toe. They won in tight spaces. As if they practice these things every day.
“I think we’ve proven all year that we can play in these games for the most part,” Trouba said. “We’ve had some ugly games, we’ve had some comebacks in the third period, and we go into the game knowing we didn’t play our best hockey, so we’re not too excited about the win. I haven’t, but none of that matters now.
“Right now, all that matters is winning. When you turn the page and move on to the next game, you might feel a little bit like you might be able to win even an ugly, dirty game, but we’ve already built that confidence during the regular season. Ta.”
Trouba moved down to the third pairing with Erik Gustafsson, while Braden Schneider moved up to the second tandem to Miller’s right, leaving Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren where they are. It is not entirely clear which one is considered a match-up pair.
But in this game, with the Rangers holding a solid one-point lead, head coach Peter Laviolette used the penalty-kill pair of Trueba and Lindgren. They managed to get through this game with Trouba playing playoff hockey, Lindgren playing playoff hockey, Panarin playing playoff hockey.
Someone suggested to Trouba that the Rangers would need to win many games like this to reach the Promised Land, the Valley of Heroes.
“Sixteen,” said the captain.
