\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of conversations with Artemi throughout the course of the season,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said after the loss. \u201cWe don\u2019t expect him to be the best defensive player out there, but everyone\u2019s required to play defense \u2014 and that\u2019s the conversation that we have. Everybody\u2019s got to be committed to play defense to a certain level or it\u2019s going to be hard for us to win consistently. <\/p>\n
![\"Artemi](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Artemi-Panarin-1.jpg\")
Artemi Panarin struggles to control the puck as he battles Devon Toews for possession during the Rangers\u2019 6-3 loss to the Avalanche on Nov. 20, 2025 in Denver. AP<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd those are the conversations that I\u2019ve had with him is just recognizing when those situations are when you\u2019ve got to lock down.\u201cEverybody knows he drives offense, he\u2019s a talented player. But I think he\u2019s also capable of defending when he\u2019s committed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid a season-long struggle to put the puck in the back of the net, the Blueshirts deployed their ninth different trio of players on the top line Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and J.T. Miller comprised the first unit together for the first time this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to find some combinations here that give us a more consistent threat offensively,\u201d Sullivan said of the lineup changes after morning skate on Thursday. \u201cAlthough I think Troch\u2019s line has [driven] a lot of offense, I feel like Mika and J.T., in the last handful of games, haven\u2019t been as effective offensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, to effect a little bit of change from a personnel standpoint can help those guys capture their best games,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe reconfigured the top six to see if we can get more consistent threats there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Eight different players have occupied the top line so far this season, including rookie Gabe Perreault, who skated with Zibanejad and Miller in all three of his NHL appearances before he was returned to Hartford last weekend.<\/p>\n
Though Panarin, Zibanejad, Miller and Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re have been the closest to regulars on the first unit, Will Cuylle, Taylor Raddysh and Conor Sheary have also gotten opportunities on the wing of that line.<\/p>\n
Despite returning to the Rangers lineup at Vegas, Will Borgen was back on the sidelines with an upper-body injury and did not play against the Avs.<\/p>\n
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Sullivan confirmed it was the same upper-body injury that sidelined him Nov. 15 and 16, noting it would be something the Rangers would have to \u201cmanage accordingly\u201d moving forward.<\/p>\n
Juuso Parssinen and Urho Vaakanainen were the Rangers healthy scratches Thursday night. <\/p>\n
The game against the Avalanche counted as Parssinen\u2019s ninth time serving as a healthy scratch, while Vaakanainen has now watched from the press box on eight occasions this season either with a lower-body injury (two games) or as a healthy scratch (six games).<\/p>\n
Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced in his eighth loss of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 The Rangers were up by a goal at the tail end of the first period when…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":394551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[28589,1302,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-394550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-artemi-panarin","9":"tag-new-york-rangers","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115587507401189526","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}