{"id":473256,"date":"2026-02-26T16:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/473256\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:19:17","slug":"ex-rangers-star-artemi-panarin-has-2-points-in-familiar-looking-kings-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/473256\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Rangers star Artemi Panarin has 2 points in familiar-looking Kings debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The black-and-white uniform was a distinct new look, but much about Artemi Panarin\u2019s<\/a> debut with the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night seemed awfully familiar to what the star forward was accustomed to with the New York Rangers in recent seasons.<\/p>\n

Panarin recorded two assists, logged more than 21 minutes of ice-time, and had a healthy expected goal share with new linemates Adrian Kempe and Alex Laferriere. However, it wasn\u2019t enough for the Kings, who surrendered five third-period goals and let a 2-1 lead devolve into a 6-4 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on home ice at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

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Try and tell me you haven\u2019t see that scenario play out far too often for Panarin and the Rangers this season and last.<\/p>\n

In fact, that\u2019s part of the reason why the Rangers traded Panarin<\/a> to the Kings three weeks ago, right before the Olympic break and NHL roster freeze. The last-place Rangers (22-29-6) opted to move their best offensive player to help restock their prospects pipeline, notably acquiring former first-round pick Liam Greentree<\/a> in the deal.<\/p>\n

Like the Rangers, the Kings are one of the lowest-scoring teams in the NHL<\/a>. Unlike the Rangers, they\u2019re in the thick of the playoff race, right now three points out of the second wild card in the Western Conference.<\/a><\/p>\n

So, did Panarin feel any extra pressure in his Kings debut?<\/p>\n

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\u201c[My] career has been full of pressure a lot of the time, so [I\u2019m] used to that pressure. [I\u2019ll] continue getting used to the system,\u201d Panarin said postgame<\/a> through an interpreter.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for The Breadman to ingratiate himself with his new team. He assisted on Quinton Byfield\u2019s power-play goal 14:31 into the first period, with a pretty cross-ice slap-pass.<\/p>\n

That goal tied the score 1-1 at the time, and Panarin then assisted on a gorgeous tic-tac-toe goal scored by Kempe at even strength to make it 2-1 Kings at 14:44 of the second period.<\/p>\n

Former Rangers star Artemi Panarin called \u2018great player\u2019 after Kings debut\"NHL:<\/p>\n

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Though that pretty passing play on the Kempe goal featured a mixed line with Anze Kopitar, Panarin skated most of 5v5 shifts with Kempe and Laferriere. That threesome had an xGF of 57.7 percent, per Natural Stat Trick<\/a>, and had an 11-7 advantage in scoring chances, including 4-1 in the high-danger variety.<\/p>\n

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However, they were on ice when Panarin\u2019s former Rangers teammate Reilly Smith scored 12:21 into the third period to put Vegas up 4-2. Panarin was also on ice in the closing minutes for Brandt Clarke\u2019s 6-on-5 goal for the Kings, and Ivan Barbashev\u2019s game-sealer for Vegas into an empty net.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he gave us what he\u2019s going to give us,\u201d Kings coach Jim Hiller said afterward<\/a>. \u201cThat line together, despite playing their first game, I thought looked like they had chemistry. They moved the puck between the three of them pretty well, so that\u2019s probably the positive from the evening. But he\u2019s a great player. You saw that tonight and you\u2019ve seen that for the last 10-12 years in the League.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day before making his Kings debut, Panarin penned a heartfelt message<\/a> on social media, thanking the Rangers and their fans for his seven seasons on Broadway. Panarin had 607 points (205 goals, 402 assists) in 482 regular-season games with the Rangers, and his 1.26 points-per-game average is best in franchise history.<\/p>\n

He returns<\/a>\u00a0to Madison Square Garden with the Kings to play the Rangers on March 16.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m a little nervous to think about coming back in March, but I\u2019m looking forward and can\u2019t wait to see you all!\u201d Panarin said in his post Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The black-and-white uniform was a distinct new look, but much about Artemi Panarin\u2019s debut with the Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[366,10969,367,3039,884,149,5317,5,1259,145,35,4,1295,36,1260,881,33,74,39,5316],"class_list":["post-473256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vegas-golden-knights","tag-adrian-kempe","tag-alex-laferriere","tag-anze-kopitar","tag-artemi-panarin","tag-brandt-clarke","tag-golden-knights","tag-goldenknights","tag-hockey","tag-ivan-barbashev","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-quinton-byfield","tag-rangers","tag-reilly-smith","tag-the-kings","tag-the-rangers","tag-vegas","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-vegasgoldenknights"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116137844402156640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}