Artemy Panarin can hardly be called the opening of the National Hockey League season. Still, everyone has known about the talent, skill and ability of the Russian forward to do incredible things on the ice for a very, very long time. But in this NHL regular season draw, Khlebushek still manages to win the hearts of hockey fans and make those who seem to have seen everything in their lifetime grab their heads.
This season Artemy has revealed himself in a new way. And this at 32 years old and under the leadership of Peter Laviolette! Many feared that with the arrival of this coach the Russian would become sad, but no. Panarin's functions have expanded significantly, he acts in several roles at once and brings great benefits to the Rangers. First of all, this concerns, of course, effectiveness. The Russian striker is the club's top scorer in this championship. He is also the best sniper and assistant. The presence of the Blue Shirts among the leaders of the regular season is a great merit, including Artemy. That is why the Russian is one of the main contenders for the Hart Trophy this year. Unfortunately for Khlebushka, he has to compete with the powerful Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon and Auston Matthews.
But even if Panarin remains outside the top three contenders for the prestigious prize, he can still be pleased with himself at the end of the championship, because this regular season has become truly special for the Russian. Artemy has already rewritten a lot of different records. However, he does not stop there and continues to achieve new achievements.
In today's match against the Boston Bruins, Panarin played solo again. Khlebushek managed to spark a seemingly boring game at T.D. Garden in Boston. So much so that the Russian was unstoppable in his spirit. Artemy made the stands applaud for him and throw hats onto the ice in honor of his hat-trick. This is the third time this season that the Rangers star has scored three times in a match! And the seventh — in his entire career in the NHL regular season. In terms of the number of hat-tricks in the main league of the world, Panarin has already surpassed such Russian legends as Sergei Fedorov and Alexei Zhamnov (both have six) and is equal to Alexander Semin.
Thanks to the hat trick, Panarin first reached and then surpassed 40 goals in a single season for the first time in his career. He has never scored so many goals: neither in the NHL, nor in the KHL. It’s an amazing situation, of course: it is Artemy, paired with Nikita Kucherov, who are the best Russian snipers in the current NHL season. It’s unlikely that anyone could have predicted such a situation before the start of the championship.
Khlebushek also updated his personal performance record in one regular season. Now the Rangers forward has 97 points (41+56) after 70 games. This is one point more than in the 2021/22 season, which was record-breaking until today’s match, when Artemy scored 96 points (22+74).
Panarin’s barrier in the form of a hundred is no longer even on the horizon, but at arm’s length points per season. Artemy could not reach this peak all these years in the NHL. Now he only needs to score three points to be among the chosen ones.
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