Artemi Panarin went beyond the ceiling

The main hero of the next day of the NHL regular season was the Russian forward of the New York Rangers Artemy Panarin. In a home match won by his club against the San Jose Sharks – 6:5, Panarin, in great shape, scored a hat-trick, adding an assist to it.

The match against San Jose was another reason for Artemy Panarin’s partners to talk about his talent and role in the team. This time, perhaps, Rangers center Mika Zibanejad spoke out most clearly, admitting that Panarin’s play at times “leaves him speechless.”

The Russian striker was the undisputed leader of the New Yorkers in the previous two seasons. But now, in fact, it seems that he has moved to some even higher level in terms of the quality of hockey. In the first weeks of the season, Artemi Panarin is not just “hot”, but incandescent. And sometimes it seems that there is no ceiling for him at all, such game aspects in which there are at least tiny problems.

Match with San Jose – an ideal example. The Californians are outsiders in the championship, but they gave the Rangers a tough fight. And if it weren’t for Panarin, the owners clearly wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

Most likely, it was Panarin’s fifth career hat-trick that made the difference.

It is very revealing exactly how he recorded it as an asset. The first goal was a traditional mid-range shot, sharp and perfectly calculated. But the way Panarin scored the next two goals tells a good story about what he added, for example, in terms of statistics compared to previous seasons. It was a finishing game – tough, in the fight. In principle, the Rangers have specialists for this, but in this case it was accomplished by a phenomenal technician, largely thanks to whom the New York club is now on an impressive schedule. After the meeting with San Jose, he shared the top line in the league summary table with the Boston Bruins. However, the Bostonians played a match more.

However, the rating of the strongest scorers of the championship should have been no less fond of the glance from Russia. Artemy Panarin is in fourth place with 35 points. His closest competitors are David Pastrnak from Boston and Jay. Ti. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks – just a point more, but a little more games played.

And the only one who managed to break away a little from Panarin was also a Russian, who had a great performance in the opening quarter of the championship. We are talking about Nikita Kucherov from the Tampa Bay Lightning, who has already managed to score 40 points. Kucherov, by the way, had a match in the championship in which he managed to get as many as six points – at the end of November against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Alexey Dospehov