Counting on the Kid Line
THE line combinations were not the root cause of the Rangers’ travails Thursday in their 3-1 Game 5 loss to the Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., which was not nearly as close on the ice as it was on the scoreboard.
But with head coach Gerard Gallant saying that he thought his team looked tired throughout the match, it is time to reunite the Kid Line for the potential elimination Game 6 of this second round of the playoffs Saturday at the Garden.
Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko are stronger as a unit than each is individually. Kakko, in particular, has been marginalized on the fourth line the past two games. More to the point, however, is that these young’uns — 20, 22 and 21, respectively, and the only forwards younger than age 27 — have infused the team with energy with their ebullient, almost naive, approach to the tournament.
The numbers are nothing to disparage, either, with the unit recording a positive attempts ratio, a positive shot share and a 48.75 xGF percentage (expected goal for percentage) while a minus-one at five-on-five, per NaturalStatTrick. Reuniting the trio should inject energy into a team that was lagging on Thursday.
Of course merely rearranging the furniture is not the elixir to what ailed the Blueshirts in Game 5, when the ’Canes assumed complete command of the match midway through the second period once Ryan Strome’s “goal” was wiped off the board because it had been scored on an offside play.
Thereafter, the Rangers simply chased and chased and chased. They won few battles. They made fewer plays. They were disconnected all over the ice. They are into the sixth game of the second round, their 13th of the postseason, and they have yet to hold a lead in a series. The grind is not only physical.
Momentum does not necessarily carry over from game to game within a series, but it can. And the Rangers will have to be on their toes from the start on Saturday in order to stanch the confidence the ’Canes accrued throughout their impressive Game 5 performance. There is no intention to belabor the point, but there is also no way around it. The Rangers need to improve in all areas, but they won’t have a chance if they do not get more from Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin.
Zibanejad had the best night among the club’s three marquee forwards, scoring a power-play goal on his wicked one-timer and winning 13 of 23 at the dots. But Kreider had one of the poorest outings of his 92-game playoff résumé. It is difficult to process how the 52goal scorer (plus another six in the tournament) could have descended into “Did. Anyone. See. Chris?” territory. But I would expect a bounce-back from Zibanejad and Kreider on Saturday.
Panarin? I have no idea. The Rangers desperately need something from the winger, whose game and body language on the ice have been unrecognizable. Panarin has been one of the NHL’s top 10 forwards since coming to New York three years ago. He is as electric as they come. Now, he is unplugged, looking dazed and confused. It hasn’t been pretty. I have no solution to offer. It is simply (well, obviously not) on Panarin to figure this out. It would be helpful if No. 10 could do it before 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Could the Rangers win a 1-0 game off a spectacular performance from Igor Shesterkin with a goal from a fourth-liner, the way the Henrik Lundqvist Rangers won that 1-0 Game 6 against Montreal on a goal from Dom Moore to advance to the 2014 Cup final? Of course they could.
But in order to achieve that result, the Rangers would have to be much firmer in their play and on their attention to detail. After largely sealing off the middle of the ice by packing the house the first four games of the series, the Blueshirts left acres of space in the slot uncovered. If Shesterkin and Ryan Strome were the team’s first two stars, the post might have been the third.
The Rangers had a couple of bad games in Pittsburgh as they were shoved to the precipice, but then recovered. This is going to be more difficult, but it is certainly achievable. If there is a reason the ’Canes are 7-0 in their House of Horrors in Raleigh, there is likely a corollary reason for their 0-5 mark on the road in Boston and New York.
The Blueshirts might be able to prey on that with a declarative, energetic start. That’s something the Kid Line could be expected to bring to the party.