The Rangers need to play one more game against the Panthers to find an answer offensively or their dream of ending a 30-year drought without hoisting the Stanley Cup will end prematurely.
Five games into the conference finals, the Rangers’ big three on offense remain largely absent.
That may have been enough to explain their 3-2 loss to the Panthers on Thursday night at the Garden, which leaves them trailing 3-2 in the series and one game away from elimination heading into Game 6 in Florida on Saturday night.
Calling all of them: Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibandeged and Chris Kreider. We need goals.
Yes, Kreider scored the first of his two goals for the Rangers on Thursday, ending a four-game goalless streak.
And Zibanejed scored the first two goals of the series, assisting on Kreider’s goal and Alexis Lafreniere’s desperation goal on a 6-on-5 situation with 50 seconds left in the game.
And sure enough, Panarin had two assists in Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4.
But the Rangers aren’t going to make it to the Stanley Cup Final just because three players who scored 114 goals in the regular season can only score one goal in five games.
Credit Florida for their tenacious and relentless forecheck, which completely stifled the Rangers’ scorers.
The Florida system reduces the ice space for Rangers skaters, and the Rangers seem completely stumped and without answers.
“We don’t prepare differently against their elite players, their top line, their fourth line,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after the game. “We look at them as the same thing. The difference is our elite players are going up against their elite players. I don’t think there’s any tactical difference.”
“From a coaching point of view, I think there’s nothing else to do but stick pretty closely to our style of game. [Tampa Bay’s Nikita] Kucherov [in the Panthers’ first playoff series]We didn’t go in circles. [Boston’s Dave] “I’m going to play all of my best players against all of their best players.”
You know how that goes.
Prior to Thursday’s goal, Kreider wasn’t the only player struggling offensively.
Zibanejad last scored a goal in the series opener against Carolina 11 games ago and hadn’t scored a point in the series until his two assists on Thursday.
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Panarin, who led the team with 49 goals and 120 points during the regular season, scored his final goal in Game 3 of the series against Carolina eight games ago.
Now the Rangers are heading to Florida looking for answers with the fate of their season still uncertain.
“Every game was so close like this,” Kreider said.
“It was a close game again,” Zibanejed said. “They came out on the offensive end in the third period and had some chances, but we struggled to get out of the zone and played our best hockey on the forecheck. I think we could have made some changes to make it 2-2, but when they scored, [to go up, 2-1]you start trying a little more desperately to push in.
“We were looking to score an equaliser but we didn’t get it today. We just need to bounce back and try to win the game.”
