If nyr loses this series panarin is going to be one of the top reasons why. Injured or not he has been atrocious
I think he’s just not good enough to generate offense in the tight checking game that Carolina plays. He looks fine on the powerplay when there’s more space.
I don’t think he’s injured. I just think he isn’t playing a smart game or winning puck battles.
He did have a few decent defensive plays last night - even broke up a 2 on 1 he was back for.
But his offensive game has gotten predictable, which is deadly for a player who generates all their offense by making opposing players guess wrongly at what he’s going to do.
How many times is he going to stop at the top of the left circle before realizing they’re waiting for it? He needs to carry the puck more and take it down into the trapezoid and work it from there more.
He also needs to generate way more off the rush with his teammates. He used to be so good at taking advantage of odd man rushes. Now he doesn’t even get them other than the breakaway in game 4 (which he flubbed).
I also don’t know what else Gallant has to see before demoting Strome. Like does he have to score on his own net?
Give Panarin another center to play with. Strome never has the puck. The team has the offensive tools to generate a ton. We know this.
Switch Panarin and Kreider at the very least - Kreider is lost out there when playing in Carolina. Completely invisible.
And bring up Kakko while we’re at it. That demotion for a kid line that looked excellent a few games back was simply boneheaded.