At last, the saga of Artemi Panarin’s trade has ended, and he has left the New York Rangers to join the Los Angeles Kings. Now, without their leader, the team will have to try to salvage their season. The question is whether they even want to. The Carolina Hurricanes, who are competing for first place in the Eastern Conference, could be an insurmountable obstacle in this game.
New York Rangers
To be honest, there is nothing left to save once they have traded away one of their main assets. They are 17 points behind the New York Islanders, who are third in the Metropolitan Division, and sit bottom of the Eastern Conference – that looks like a verdict on their season. On top of that, they have to wait at least until the end of February for key defenceman Adam Fox and goaltender Igor Shesterkin to return from injury. No team in the league have a worse run of results than the Rangers (2-8-0).
Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes, with their 7-1-2 run, are comfortably maintaining their lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins (+8) and the New York Islanders (+9). In effect, the squad have no significant injuries: only Eric Robinson is out, and he did not play a major role in the attack. Rod Brind'Amour’s team are strong because of their balance; there is no single, clearly defined key figure. At times Sebastian Aho, currently their leading scorer with 57 points, can carry them; at other moments it is Andrei Svechnikov; and right now, for example, Seth Jarvis is stepping up with six points in his last five games.
New York Rangers vs Carolina Hurricanes Prediction
Without Artemi Panarin, the New York Rangers are about to play their first game in many seasons without him not because of injury but because he has left the club. Their play is likely to become even less creative than it already was, and their results at Madison Square Garden are frankly poor (6-14-4). We expect the visitors to win again, just as they did at the start of November (3:0).
