Artemi Panarin is in the midst of a brutal stretch in what’s been a rough early part of the season, so he finally made a change.
Not to his game, but to his head. He shaved it. Again.
“I had to change something,’’ the Rangers star said after practice in Tarrytown on Thursday. “The next step is a left stick if this doesn’t work.”
Panarin was being light-hearted, but he knows his recent play hasn’t been up to standards.
He doesn’t have a point in his past six games and has scored just twice this season after putting up 37 goals last year and a career-high 49 the season prior, when he also shaved his head in hopes of getting better results.
The slump he’s in now is especially ill-timed.
Not only are the Rangers among the lowest-scoring teams in the NHL through the first month of the year, but Panarin is in the final season of his seven-year, $81 million contract.
His future is on his mind.
“For sure,’’ Panarin said. “Players always think about their next years. But it’s not an excuse.”
There have been no indications of an extension with the Rangers and Panarin said he hadn’t heard anything about a potential trade.
After dealing with an injury in the preseason, he still believes he’ll be able to turn his season around, even as he acknowledged his lack of scoring has taken a toll.
“I always feel confident, but it’s not 100 percent like usual because I don’t have enough points,’’ Panarin said. “But that can change any game. Maybe it will [Friday]. I feel close [to scoring] every game. It’s just not working. I’m getting chances, I just can’t score right now.”
As part of the line changes the Rangers used in Thursday’s practice, Panarin skated with Mika Zibanejad and Taylor Raddysh.
“He’s working at it,” Mike Sullivan said of Panarin. “We’re relying on him to produce and drive the offense. … Although he hasn’t gotten rewarded, I think his game is improving. [He’s gotten] more looks. No one cares more than him.”
Jaroslav Chmelar skated with Sam Carrick and Juuso Parssinen and could make his debut Friday in Detroit after being recalled from Hartford of the AHL. Sullivan praised the 22-year-old’s performance when he was at Hartford and Chmelar said he’d bring the same style of play he had in the AHL to the Rangers.
“I’ll try to buy into my identity,” the Czech said. “I want to be hard and win some pucks deep.
He considered physicality to be a major part of his game.
“One hundred percent,’’ said the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Chmelar. “I want to be around the net and make the defense fear going into the corner with me.”
Urho Vaakanainen (lower body) remains day to day, while Vincent Trocheck (upper body) will be out Friday.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
