Panarin's big rookie year crests vs. Penguins
We’ve been saying this a lot this year, but the Chicago Blackhawks have found a pretty special player in rookie sensation Artemi Panarin.
Signed as a free agent out of the KHL this summer, Panarin has taken the league by storm as part of one of the NHL’s most dominant lines alongside scoring title front-runner Patrick Kane and Artem Anisimov.
The 24-year-old Russian has been the leading scorer among rookies for some time now, but he’s opening up a ridiculous lead that could soon be insurmountable. If the Blackhawks weren’t already done playing the Pittsburgh Penguins for the regular season, things could have gotten ugly for the rest of the league’s first-year players. As we now know, it appears Panarin enjoys playing Pittsburgh.
In the home-and-home series between two of the league’s more popular U.S.-based teams, Panarin stole the show. On Tuesday night, he scored a pair of goals including the overtime winner on a shot that was rifled so hard it came out of the net almost as quickly as it went into it.
The @NHLBlackhawks‘ OT winner was a pure Bread snipe. https://t.co/yM6AlgU7kj
— NHL (@NHL) January 6, 2016
He followed that up with another two-goal perfomrance on home ice Wednesday night. Once again, his quick release was on display, but so were his immense puck skills and offensive instincts.
For Panarin’s first goal, he held on to the puck for what could be considered in hockey terms as “forever.” He skated from the half wall on one side of the ice, zoomed around the top of the zone with the Penguins playing a little too passively. By the time he had made a half circle, he fired a quick shot that snuck under Marc-Andre Fleury‘s arm to make it 1-0.
Around the ?. #PITvsCHI https://t.co/E8EzvKYuOn
— NHL (@NHL) January 7, 2016
After that, with the score tied 1-1 in the third period, Panarin showed why it helps to have a good centerman. After Anisimov tied his man off the draw, Pens defenseman Brian Dumoulin overskated the puck, which left it there for Panarin, who had fought off a check before ripping the puck toward the net. The shot beat Fleury before the goaltender even knew it was off Panarin’s stick.
Panarin on point. #PITvsCHI #RivalryNight https://t.co/w20ZOuCKyg
— NHL (@NHL) January 7, 2016
That second goal proved to be the winner for the Blackhawks as Panarin capped his four goals in two days against the Pens.
That second goal also gave Panarin the top slot in the rookie goal scoring lead, surpassing Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings, with his 15th. Panarin also now has 38 points, 10 more than the next closest first-year player, Max Domi of the Arizona Coyotes. That point total also put him in a tie for ninth overall in the entire NHL.
Panarin remains on an incredible scoring pace for a rookie, trending towards 29 goals and 73 points this year. It would be the best rookie campaign since Evgeni Malkin had 85 points and Paul Stastny had 78 in 2006-07, and would top Patrick Kane’s rookie year by one point.
Granted, he is older than your average rookie at 24 and played pro hockey in the KHL, but the NHL is a whole different ballgame. Plenty of players, even ones older than Panarin, have come over from the KHL and not been able to make much of an impact. Having never played in North America before, the Blackhawks put him in a great position to succeed and he’s seized it.
Another reason that 73-point pace matters? Think about who the Blackhawks lost during the offseason. They had to trade away top-six wingers Brandon Saad and Patrick Sharp, neither of whom came close to 73 in their last season in Chicago.
The team surely expected Panarin to be an immediate contributor. They couldn’t have expected him to produce like a top winger in the league in his first season. If he keeps this up, he’ll open up a big enough lead to leave no doubt as to who should win the Calder Trophy, even if he has a few advantages over the rest of this year’s talented rookie field.
Artemi Panarin scores four goals over two nights against the Penguins. (USATSI)
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