RALEIGH, N.C. — We know that we have not seen the real Artemi Panarin through the first eight games of the playoffs. So does the real Artemi Panarin. But we may have to wait for the return of the instinctive, electric and entertaining No. 10 until the first puck is dropped on the 2022-23 season.
That doesn’t mean that Panarin is injured or unduly banged up and will need the offseason to recover, as the speculation has raged in response to the winger’s play, which has been ordinary at best. It means Panarin has recognized that his risk-oriented game needs to be toned down in the playoffs.
That was especially noticeable in Carolina’s 2-1 overtime Game 1 victory on Wednesday, when Panarin was barely noticeable, other than coming up short on a back-checking assignment on Sebastian Aho’s goal that tied the match with 2:23 remaining in the third period.
“[I] played not bad, [it’s] just hard to do something crazy when we’re in the lead, 1-0, so I play a pretty conservative game,” Panarin said without the use of an interpreter hours in advance of Friday’s Game 2. “I try not to take as much risk as I usually take.
“[It’s] not feeling great, but sometimes you have to do that. It depends on the situation in the game. If you are losing a few-nothing, you have to start playing like you normally do. I would love to do some stupid s–t on the blue line, but I can’t.
“I feel bad for Turk,” No. 10 said in reference to head coach Gerard Gallant. “He’s nervous, he’s got a nervous system.”
Actually, to the contrary, Gallant has a system designed to minimize nervous hockey. All coaches do. All coaches emphasize the importance of limiting mistakes in the playoffs. It is more about what you leave than what you take. It is about giving away as little as possible for free. It is about being risk-averse.
That is antithetical to Panarin’s instincts. When he is at his best, Panarin is weaving and stutter-stepping, unpredictable with the puck and prone to attempting 50-foot cross-ice passes through a maze of bodies and sticks.
That is high level risk-reward hockey, which has paid off rather spectacularly for both Panarin and the Rangers since he signed his seven-year, $81.5 million free-agent contract on July 1, 2019, a signing dramatically accelerated the team’s rebuilding timetable. Panarin’s hockey has produced 249 points (71-178) in 186 games as a Ranger, ninth in the league, and a highlight reel that runs on a loop.
Now, not quite, and not really much at all, even though Panarin did score the Game 7 overtime winner against Pittsburgh in Round 1 on a wicked wrister from the right circle through traffic that found a sliver of net. Without taking risks, he has become a vanilla player. Without the dynamic element, his line with Ryan Strome and Andrew Copp has been suppressed.
It’s kind of like that old episode of the “Superman” TV series in which Superman had to split himself in half. That deprived each version of full superhero powers. This is Panarin in a risk-averse scenario.
Of course it makes sense, the Rangers cannot afford turnovers in the middle of the ice and they must attempt to limit Carolina’s transition game as much as possible. That means simplifying and playing as much straight line hockey as possible. Panarin gets it.
“It’s just the game in the playoffs,” said the winger, who entered Game 2 with seven points (3-4) through the tournament. “You have to use your better sides. My better side is being a little risky but sometimes you have to understand that in that situation there is no reason for risk.”
Depending on how this series evolves, there may come a time when Panarin and Gallant both recognize a low-risk equation that yields a low-reward result is actually counterproductive.
There may also come a time when Panarin gets a better understanding of how to incorporate tolerable risk into his game when the Rangers need his offense. Which, let’s face it, is just about always.
Neither Strome’s line nor Mika Zibanejad’s unit with Chris Kreider and Frank Vatrano generated much of an attack in Game 1. The energetic and perhaps naive Kid Line, with Filip Chytil skating between Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko, was clearly the Rangers’ best unit on Wednesday.
Gallant said he had considered breaking up that unit to elevate a component or two into the top six. That represented another risk-reward conundrum for the coach.
“I think of that quite a bit actually, but I’m going to leave them alone for now,” Gallant said. “We think about that every day as coaches, definitely, when you have the one line going real well with the Kid Line and you move them up and down and you [could] mess up something that was good.”
That’s not what you want.