Artemi Panarin

Report: New York Rangers’ Artemi Panarin may be able to file a libel suit

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New York Rangers, Artemi Panarin

It has been just longer than one day since we received the bombshell news concerning the New York Rangers’ Artemi Panarin. At this point, there are not many people that believe the news out of Russia stating that Panarin assaulted an 18-year-old girl in 2011 while in the KHL.

Panarin has the full support of the entire Rangers organization. Yesterday after practice, Ryan Strome had this to say about the Panarin: “I think he is in good hands. The Rangers do an unbelievable job of having a support system for players for anything we need. He is in good hands and he is such a good person. Good teammate and he has been such a good role model for me and some of our younger teammates with his personality and the way he carries himself.”

Now it appears that Panarin may have some legal recourse back in Russia.

According to Michael Seawing of sports-express.ru, Panarin may be able to file a libel lawsuit against the coach who reported the accusation, former Vityaz coach Andrei Nazarov. The article quoted lawyer Angela Panova, who claimed that (translated) both law enforcement agencies and the court are involved in libel cases. Artemy Panarin should write a statement that Andrei Nazarov’s information is not true. Also, we need witnesses, audio and video materials confirming that Artemy did not commit illegal acts in the bar. Such cases are regulated by part 2 of Article 128.1 of the Russian Criminal Code.

According to the translated article, Part 2, Article 128.1 of the Russian Criminal Code states that defamation contained in a public statement, publicly displayed work, media or made in public using information and telecommunications networks, including the Internet, or against several persons, including individually not defined, is punishable by a fine of up to 1 million rubles or in the amount of wages or other income convicted for the period up to the year either mandatory work for up to 240 hours, or forced labor for up to two years, or arrest for up to two months, or imprisonment for up to two years.

It is not clear whether Panarin would want to go that route. The speculation is that this report surfaced because of critical social media postings that Panarin made concerning the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It has been widely reported that Nazarov is an ardent supporter of the Russian President, and this may have been done in retaliation for those postings.

However, what is known is that the Rangers will be without one of their best players for an extended period of time.

 

 

Report: Artemi Panarin to take leave of absence from the New York Rangers

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New York Rangers, Artemi Panarin

Larry Brooks of the New York Post has reported that New York Ranger‘s star forward Artemi Panarin is taking a leave of absence from the team in wake of a politically motivated article from Russia. The article states that his former Vityaz head coach alleges that the ex-forward of the Moscow Region club beat an 18-year-old girl in Riga, Latvia in 2011.

The backlash seems to have come from a July 2019 interview with the Vsemu Golovin YouTube channel and eviscerated Putin. It was a bombshell interview in which the 2020 Hart trophy finalist – barefoot in his living room in Saint Petersburg – criticized Putin’s entire regime.

Brooks reports that Andrei Nazarov, who is currently the head coach of the KHL’s Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, has repeatedly criticized Panarin for the forward’s outspoken beliefs regarding Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s regime. Nazarov is a known Putin supporter.

The New York Rangers have released a statement that reads: Artemi vehemently and unequivocally denies any and all allegations in this fabricated story. This is clearly an intimidation tactic being used against him for being outspoken on recent political events. Artemi is obviously shaken and concerned and will take some time away from the team. The Rangers fully support Artemi and will work with him to identify the source of these unfounded allegations.

 

Great effort propels the New York Rangers to victory

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New York Rangers, Ryan Strome

It might be a bit of a reach to say this might have been one of the better efforts from the New York Rangers this season. At the very least, it was their best game in quite a while.  Alexis Lafrenière scored his second NHL goal as the Rangers beat the Washington Capitals 4-1.

Mika Zibanejad sealed the game with an empty-netter with 2:12 left. The Blueshirts have strung together back-to-back wins for just the second time this season.

Ryan Strome hits two “century” marks for the New York Rangers

By recording an assist on Chris Kreider‘s goal, Strome garnered his 100th career point with the Rangers. He later picked up his 100th career NHL goal when he scored at 18:43 of the second period.

In his post-game interview, Strome was very pleased with the team’s effort. “I thought we had a good team effort. It might be a bit of a cliche but I thought everybody played very well.”

New York Rangers break the “close” game trend

In winning this game by three goals, the Rangers broke a bit of a string. Twelve of the Rangers’ last 13 games, and 12 of the team’s 15 games this season, have been decided by two or fewer goals. Nine of those contests have been decided by one goal. Also, four of the Blueshirts’ last nine games have been decided in either overtime or a shootout. The Rangers’ nine one-goal games in 2020-21 are tied for the sixth-most in the NHL. Their 12 games decided by two or fewer goals are tied for the eighth-most in the league.

Igor Shesterkin only allowed one goal on 27 Washington shots on goal. The Rangers have held their opponents to two goals or fewer in six of the last eight games and seven of the last 10 games. Going into the game, the Blueshirts have allowed 2.67 goals against per game in 2020-21, which is tied for the ninth-fewest in the NHL.

Artemi Panarin picked up two assists in the game. He has tallied eight assists/points in his last three games against Washington (including his two assists today). He has also registered a point in each of his last seven games against the Capitals (five goals, seven assists).

With Sunday’s game against the Capitals rescheduled, the Rangers will be back in action Wednesday night against the Philadelphia Flyers.

 

 

 

 

More bad news for the New York Rangers: Jacob Trouba out 4-6 weeks

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New York Rangers

The New York Rangers received some bad news when they found out that they will be without defenseman Jacob Trouba for the next four to six weeks because of a broken thumb.

“Unfortunately, we’re going to miss everything he brings from a physicality standpoint, from a competitive standpoint, from what he brings to us from a leadership standpoint,” coach David Quinn said Wednesday. “He’ll be missed. But the good news is it’s not as serious as we originally thought and he’s going to be back sooner than later.”

Trouba averaged over 22 minutes a game, so it will take a total team effort to be able to make up for his absence.

“Everybody on that D corps has just got to play a little bit better,” Quinn said. “That’s all. It can’t be one guy. It’s got to be everybody.”

The Rangers did receive some good news in that it was announced that Artemi Panarin is expected to return Thursday against Philadelphia after missing the past two games with a lower-body injury. Also, Quinn announced that defenseman K’Andre Miller will play after sitting out a loss Tuesday night to New Jersey with an upper-body injury.

 

 

 

 

Rangers’ Panarin not skating with main group Monday, doubtful to play Tuesday

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Updated 1:00 p.m.

When the New York Rangers team hit the ice for practice on Monday morning, Artemi Panarin was missing from the group.

It appears the team’s leading scorer in goals and points will miss his second consecutive game with a lower-body injury on Tuesday night when the Blueshirts host the New Jersey Devils.

The Rangers official Twitter account put a video out that had Panarin skating by himself on the ice at their training facility.  Unfortunately, that was as close as the Breadman would get to skating with his teammates on Monday.

Rangers beat writer Vince Z. Mecogliano announced the lines at practice that did not include the Breadman.

The practice lines were the same that the teams used in Saturday’s practice.

Ryan Lindgren and K’Andre Miller were both back at practice after missing Saturday’s which was announced as maintenance days.

Following practice, Mecogliano Tweeted that head coach David Quinn said the team is expecting Panarin to miss the game on Tuesday night and added defenseman K’Andre Miller has an upper-body injury and could miss tomorrow’s game as well. They will have more on that tomorrow before the game.

Igor Shestrkin will be in goal.

Follow Frank Curto on Twitter @RangerProud.

Are expectations too high for this year’s New York Rangers?

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New York Rangers

After making the play-in round of last year’s playoffs, winning the NHL draft lottery, and selecting Alexis Lafreniere, many thought that the New York Rangers should be making a run at the playoffs. After losing their last three games and seeing their season record fall to 4-6-3, many are thinking that the Rangers are underachieving through their first 13 games.

While the Rangers are not happy with their play, there are many factors in play as to why this year’s Blueshirts are just four points behind the Islanders for the last playoff spot.

That is really not that far away, even in a 56 game season.

The biggest thing to remember is that the average age of a player on the Rangers’ active roster this season is 25.6 years old, which is the youngest in the NHL. The Rangers have seven players 22 years old or younger on their active roster (Chytil, Fox, Howden, Kakko, Lafrenière, Lindgren, and Miller), and the Blueshirts have had more players who are 22 years old or younger play at least one game this season than any other NHL team.

Sure it is disappointing to see the overall number one draft pick have only one goal for one point on the season. Especially when one sees another rookie like Pius Suter of the Chicago Blackhawks not only get his first NHL goal recently but ended that game on January 23 against the Red Wings with a hat trick. Suter currently leads all rookies in scoring with 9 points.

Yes, it is frustrating to see that 40 other NHL rookies have more points than their overall number one pick.

But Lafreniere’s issues are just one of many other issues that the Rangers are having this year.

Outside of Artemi Panarin, many other Rangers are struggling. Mika Zibanejad has one goal in 13 games. Kaapo Kakko two in 12, Pavel Buchnevich one in his past 11. Players in the bottom six are also struggling such as Phil Di Giuseppe with no goals in 12, Brett Howden none in 13, Brendan Lemieux one in 12. Chris Kreider’s has four goals, but no assists.

After Friday night’s loss, head coach David Quinn summed his team’s frustrations in his post-game Zoom conference when he said “We pass when we should shoot and we shoot when we should pass.”

However, with all of the issues that the Rangers have had, there is still a silver lining that Quinn also mentioned in his post-game Zoom conference. “These games are going to be so valuable for our young players moving forward,” Quinn said. “Like I said, you can learn an awful lot from a team (Boston) like that. You’ve got to pay attention to teams that have sustained success for as long as they have. We’re trying to get to the level of the Bergerons and the Marchands and the Pastrnaks, the Krejcis.… These guys have been competing for Stanley Cup championships for a long time, close to a decade.

“It’s a great experience for our players. But at the end of the day, we’re not here for great experiences. We’re here to win hockey games and these are two hockey games we feel like we could have won.”

It is not like the Rangers have been blown out in the games they lost. Eleven of the Rangers’ 13 games have been decided by two goals or fewer, eight of those by one goal.

At some point, a young and talented team should be able to turn this around and start winning these one-goal games.

The Rangers and their fans hope this happens sooner rather than later. But make no mistake about it, this will happen at some point in the future.

 

 

 

 

The New York Rangers will be without Artemi Panarin for tonight’s game against the Bruins

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New York Rangers, Artemi Panarin

The New York Rangers announced some good and bad news before their Friday night contest against the Boston Bruins. Colin Blackwell will return to action but Artemi Panarin is out as the team has listed his status as day-to-day.

This comes as a severe blow to a struggling Rangers team who will now have to face the East Division’s top team without their leading scorer.

If the Rangers expect to have a chance in Friday night’s game, they will need to have every player step up and carry the load in Panarin’s absence.

While it would be nice to see Mika Zibanejad get untracked, the Rangers will need to rely on players like Kevin Rooney, who leads the Rangers with a plus-six in 10 games this season.

In their last ten games, the Rangers are 3-4-3, averaging 2.6 goals, 4.3 assists, 3.6 penalties, and 8.1 penalty minutes while giving up 2.8 goals per game with a .901 save percentage.

They will also need to keep getting the pucks to the net, as the Rangers have registered 50 more shots on goal than they have allowed this season (389-339). Entering tonight’s game, the Blueshirts are one of six NHL teams that have posted a plus-50 shot differential or better this season, although one of those six teams is also the Boston Bruins.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. at MSG.

 

 

 

Adam Fox: One of the New York Rangers most consistent players this season

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Colin Blackwell, New York Rangers

While some of the star players on the New York Rangers have struggled so far this season, one player has stepped up to be a consistent force for the Blueshirts.  This takes the form of 22-year-old Jericho, N.Y. native Adam Fox,  who trails only Artemi Panarin and Pavel Buchnevich for the team lead in points scored this season.

Fox certainly caught the attention of NBCSN’s Pierre McGuire during Wednesday night’s national broadcast, as the veteran announcer consistently heaped mounds of praise on Fox’s play throughout the overtime loss to the Bruins.

Even though it sounded like McGuire was working for Fox’s PR department, the young defenseman has certainly been worthy of praise for his play thus far.

Per @PR_NHL, Fox’s 49 career points are the fifth-most by a Ranger defenseman through their first 82 NHL games in franchise history (trailing only Brian Leetch, Sergei Zubov, Reijo Ruotsalainen, and Ron Greschner).

In addition to his time on the power-play unit, Fox has also been added to the penalty kill line. all of this has meant that Fox is now at the top of the Rangers time-on-ice list at just over 24 minutes per game. His presence has been needed for a defense that has been a little thinned out due to injuries to Jack Johnson and Brendan Smith, as well as having Tony DeAngelo being placed on waivers and told to stay home.

If Artemi Panarin has to miss anytime after suffering an injury in Wednesday night’s game, Fox will be counted on even more to pick up the slack.

This is not something that would seem to bother head coach David Quinn, who recently said about Fox in a Zoom conference that “He’s very easygoing. Not a lot rattles him, pressure doesn’t get to him. He’s pretty cool, calm, and collected off the ice, as well. But our guys recognize what type of player he is — and I think not only our guys but players across the league.”

Fox was selected by the Calgary Flames, 66th overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft but decided to play college hockey at Harvard. In June 2018, Calgary traded Fox’s NHL rights to the Carolina Hurricanes, who traded them to the New York Rangers in April 2019 for two picks, something that now looks like quite a bargain.

Fox and the Rangers will get another shot at the Bruins Friday night as the two teams meet again at MSG with a 7 p.m. puck drop.

 

 

 

 

New York Rangers fall in overtime as Artemi Panarin suffers an injury

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It would figure that the 700th game between the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins would be interesting. After some end to end action and some video reviews, the Rangers fall to the Bruins 3-2 in overtime.

It is not surprising that the Rangers were involved in another close game, as coming into tonight’s contest, Each of the Rangers’ last nine games, and nine of the team’s 11 games this season, have been decided by two or fewer goals. Six of those contests and have been decided by one goal.

In addition to the final score, the biggest news of the night is the injury status of Blueshirts star Artemi Panarin. He missed a large portion of the third period after being shaken up late in the second period. Panarin did come on to man the power play with seven minutes left in the game. Even in the short amount of time, Panarin played in the third period, it was apparent that he was skating with a great deal of discomfort.

After the game, head coach David Quinn said in his post-game zoom conference that “Panarin has a little bit of a lower-body injury and will be reassessed.” If Panarin misses anytime, this would come as a big blow to the young Rangers team.

Julian Gauthier scored his first Ranger and NHL goal to get the scoring started. Kevin Rooney tapped in a loose puck late in the second period to tie the game that eventually went into overtime.

Alexandar Georgiev got the start in the net on his 25th birthday. However, it was quite different than the game he played last year on his birthday when he stopped 55 of 56 shots and earned a win on Feb. 10, 2019, vs. Toronto. Georgiev’s 55 saves were the second-most in one game in franchise history.

The first place Bruins came into the game red-hot, going 7-0-1 in their last eight games. Their win tonight is their fourth straight.

The Rangers and the Bruins will be seeing a lot of each other as the Rangers will play four home games against the Bruins in February, which marks the first time in franchise history that the Blueshirts will play four regular-season home games against the same opponent in one calendar month.

The two teams meet again on Friday night.

Ryan Strome starting to warm up for the New York Rangers

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New York Rangers, Artemi Panarin

Like many of the New York Rangers, Ryan Strome had a slow start to the season in getting only one point in his first six games. But as the Rangers start heating up, so has Strome as he has now registered five points in his last four games by scoring three goals along with two assists.

Strome now has four goals and six points in 10 games this season.

Although happy that he is doing well, Strome seemed unfazed by the slow start. In his post-game Zoom conference after Thursday night’s win, Strome said that “I have been around 500 games now and have seen the highs and lows. Just to be honest, I am worrying about what the coaches are saying now and not what is in the media and on Twitter. I’ve learned early on in my career to stay away from that and just focus on getting my game better.”

Mature comments from the 27-year-old, especially while teammate Chris Kreider was trying to distract him by doing the “haunted table” routine.

In scoring the two goals in Thursday night’s game, Strome extended his point streak to four games and has tallied a point in five in each of his last six games.

A little more like what the Rangers expected after his $9 million, two-year contract.

Much of his improved play has been attributed to being able to connect with teammate Artemi Panarin.

“Obviously Artemi makes such good plays,” Strome said, “that I think we’re starting to find those little touch passes with some two-man passes and some give-and-goes which I think makes us successful.”

It was that type of play at 7:55 of the third period when Strome combined on a give-and-go with Panarin, which proved to be the deciding goal of the win against the Capitals.

Strome’s play has at least in some way has helped Panarin. With the assist on one of Strome’s goals, Panarin leads the Rangers in goals (five), assists (eight), and points (13) this season, and he has recorded a point on 13 of the Rangers’ 26 goals in 2020-21, per NYRStats&Info.

The Rangers will have a little break from game action until Monday’s meeting with the Islanders.