Andrey SenchenkoSport correspondentAll materialsEmail to the authorArtemiy Panarin is a truly unique hockey player. The Russian is at an incredibly high level, is one of the best and richest players in the National Hockey League, but at the same time, by his 30s, he has never participated in either the Olympics or Star Games (both in the NHL and in the KHL). Now the whole of New York is being built around Khlebushka. More precisely, that part of it that belongs to the Rangers. In his third season for the Blueshirts, Panarin managed to instill in the team the spirit of the winners. And it doesn’t matter that the Rangers won most of the victories in the current season of the regular season in matches with rivals of a lower class: now no one expects a fight for the Stanley Cup from a team from New York, and their presence among the leaders of the NHL should be regarded as necessary for now for great victories, becoming. On the way to grandiose goals, the experience of matches like today is also useful. Three-losers in their last four games, Los Angeles were hardly the favorites, but the Kings still gleamed to match their bright silver helmets. In the first period, guests from California allowed only three shots on their own goal, and in the second period they completely silenced Madison Square Garden twice.
.@BLizotte46, top 🧀#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/MWtuk9Hfsm
— LA Kings (@LAKings) January 25, 2022
🅿️ower 🅿️lay goal from Alex Iafallo! #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/dv9lq1Mljl
— LA Kings (@LAKings) January 25, 2022 True, they will still be talked about less than Panarin, who was recognized as the second star of the match. Today, Artemy continued his hitting streak and scored two assists. First, Khlebushush said hello to Alexander Ovechkin with a pre-goal assist on Chris Kreider, who scored his 30th goal of the season and took the lead in the sniper race. The leader of «Washington» in a parallel meeting with «Vegas» kept silent (0:1).
Two All-Stars doing All-Star things. pic.twitter.com/d9DHWgZ16O
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 25, 2022 Then Panarin saved his team from an offensive defeat: five minutes before the final siren, Artemy powerfully threw at the goal, and Barkley Goodrow skillfully sent the puck into the net with one movement of the stick. For the Russian striker «Rangers» this goal was special — by scoring the second scoring point for the match, Khlebushek brought the total number of points in his overseas career to 518. Thus, he overtook the legendary Russian Alexander Semin (517 points) and went to a clean 19th place among all Russian scorers in the history of the NHL. Moreover, it took Artemy 179 matches less!
Tie game, c/o Goody. pic.twitter.com/1ozHnpESbC
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 25, 2022 The highest paid Russian in the NHL could also score a goal. Even with the score 1:1, Panarin entered the opponent's zone on the right flank, moved to the center and, approaching the goalkeeper, outplayed him. However, the puck, in some incomprehensible way, only hit the post. Neither Panarin, who had already begun to celebrate the goal, nor the fans who shared this joy with Artemy, nor the arena workers who lit the lights outside Jonathan Quick's frame, believed it. «Artemy is damn good. But how did he not score now ?!» — such comments were filled with the entire feed on Twitter.
One hell of a scoring chance for Artemiy Panarin, but he hits the crossbar #NYR pic.twitter.com/z8X4l4x9XF
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) January 25, 2022
Let go rangers…. common panarin pic.twitter.com/aNkOWPsCqk
— MaraTvShow (@MaraTvShow1) January 25, 2022 The ten richest team in the league scored his puck only in a shootout, where Igor Shesterkin tasted his portion of glory. The Rangers goalkeeper, whose name was once again chanted by the entire Madison Square Garden, helped the team get a strong-willed victory and was recognized as the first star of the meeting.