Artemi Panarin became the hero of the day in the NHL and approached the 100-point mark for the season

The hero of the next day of the NHL regular season was Russian New York Rangers forward Artemiy Panarin. In the away match against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which the New Yorkers won 7:4, Panarin scored two goals and gave three assists, approaching the mark of one hundred points scored in the championship for the first time in his career.

In this exciting match, thanks to which, having gone through difficulties, being inferior in score, the New York Rangers, who are at the top of the Metropolitan Division table and near the top of the league summary table, slightly strengthened their already pleasant tournament position, Artemy Panarin seemed to decide to show all your talents. He was good both in equal strength and in the majority. He accelerated attacks through the middle zone and directed them into someone else’s zone, providing his partners with great chances. He confused Pittsburgh defenders with his dribbling and made killer shots. As a result, after the game, Panarin had a double and three assists to boot – great statistics.

Five points in a match is, however, nothing new for him. Previously, Panarin had already collected such a harvest four times. But the last time this happened was quite a long time ago, in February 2023, which seems quite strange, given how the season is shaping up for Artemi Panarin so far.

And it turns out in such a way that the question about whether Panarin considers him the best in his life, asked to the forward when he found himself in front of journalists’ microphones after the end of the game, sounded quite natural, or something. Well, yes, the moment was right. The answer sounded quite natural. Panarin apologized and said that he doesn’t think about such things now. It will be time to think about when the season for which the Rangers have serious plans will be over. But in general, most likely, when he thinks about it in the summer, he will instantly admit: of course, he is the best.

The important thing here is that everything matches so far. Both the Rangers and Artemi Panarin have great numbers. After the explosion in the match with Pittsburgh, he scored 93 points in the regular season. Panarin is in his fifth season with the Rangers, and he has not surpassed the noticeable 90-point mark only once – in 2021. But that doesn’t count: that season was shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic. And four championships in total and three in a row with 90 points is generally a record for the club, for which many great strikers have played in its long history.

But there is a mark that is much more beautiful – 100 points. Quite, let’s say, top-notch, a badge of honor even for a super forward, a source of absolute pride. And this, oddly enough, Artemy Panarin, with all his skills, did not achieve either in the Rangers or before the New York team in the Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets, repeatedly stopping nearby.

But now, it seems, nothing can stop Artemy Panarin from reaching this milestone.

After all, the Rangers have another dozen and a half meetings on their calendar before the end of the regular season. And in them you need to get only seven points – by his standards, a warm-up schedule.

If we manage to save the current one, then perhaps Artemy Panarin’s position in the scorer classification will be even better than the one he currently occupies—fifth. After all, fourth-placed David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins is only three points away.

Panarin, however, is not destined to participate in the dispute for championship among scorers – the lead among the leaders is too large. And the leaders are still the same – Canadian Nathan MacKinnon from the Colorado Avalanche and Russian Nikita Kucherov from the Tampa Bay Lightning. And their race looks incredibly exciting: various interesting turns are happening in it all the time.

Until recently, Kucherov’s reserves seemed quite solid. Then MacKinnon made a breakthrough, and last week he was ahead by as much as eight points. Kucherov’s answer was impressive. When he seemed to have turned into a clear outsider of the confrontation, having also allowed Connor McDavid from the Edmonton Oilers, who jumped out of an ambush, to get close to him, the Russian fired loudly – five points in the match with the Rangers, now two – with another contender victory in the regular season by the Florida Panthers, in which Tampa prevailed – 5:3. And there is almost no lag anymore. MacKinnon has 116 points, Kucherov has 114. And, by the way, Tampa has a game more in the final stretch than Colorado.

Alexey Dospehov