{"id":267926,"date":"2025-11-07T03:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T03:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/267926\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T03:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T03:25:10","slug":"artemi-panarin-shaves-head-again-in-hopes-of-breaking-his-season-long-rangers-slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/267926\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemi Panarin shaves head again in hopes of breaking his season-long Rangers slump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artemi Panarin is in the midst of a brutal stretch in what\u2019s been a rough early part of the season, so he finally made a change.<\/p>\n

Not to his game, but to his head. He shaved it. Again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to change something,\u2019\u2019 the Rangers star said after practice in Tarrytown on Thursday. \u201cThe next step is a left stick if this doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panarin was being light-hearted, but he knows his recent play hasn\u2019t been up to standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

The slump he\u2019s in now is especially ill-timed.<\/p>\n

\"ArtemiArtemi Panarin skates with the puck in the first period during the Rangers\u2019 3-0 loss to the Penguins at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 7, 2025. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

His future is on his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure,\u2019\u2019 Panarin said. \u201cPlayers always think about their next years. But it\u2019s not an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been no indications of an extension with the Rangers and Panarin said he hadn\u2019t heard anything about a potential trade.<\/p>\n

After dealing with an injury in the preseason, he still believes he\u2019ll be able to turn his season around, even as he acknowledged his lack of scoring has taken a toll.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always feel confident, but it\u2019s not 100 percent like usual because I don\u2019t have enough points,\u2019\u2019 Panarin said. \u201cBut that can change any game. Maybe it will [Friday]. I feel close [to scoring] every game. It\u2019s just not working. I\u2019m getting chances, I just can\u2019t score right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the line changes the Rangers used in Thursday\u2019s practice, Panarin skated with Mika Zibanejad and Taylor Raddysh.<\/p>\n

\"ArtemiArtemi Panarin avoids a check by Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon in the third period of the Rangers\u2019 loss to the Wild at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 20, 2025. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s working at it,\u201d Mike Sullivan said of Panarin. \u201cWe\u2019re relying on him to produce and drive the offense. \u2026 Although he hasn\u2019t gotten rewarded, I think his game is improving. [He\u2019s gotten] more looks. No one cares more than him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s performance when he was at Hartford and Chmelar said he\u2019d bring the same style of play he had in the AHL to the Rangers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll try to buy into my identity,\u201d the Czech said. \u201cI want to be hard and win some pucks deep.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Larry Brooks’ Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

He considered physicality to be a major part of his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred percent,\u2019\u2019 said the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Chmelar. \u201cI want to be around the net and make the defense fear going into the corner with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Urho Vaakanainen (lower body) remains day to day, while Vincent Trocheck (upper body) will be out Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artemi Panarin is in the midst of a brutal stretch in what\u2019s been a rough early part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,3617,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-267926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}