Bright anniversary of Panarin: got in a row with Gretzky and beat Malkin again

Andrei SenchenkoSport correspondentAll materialsEmail to the authorNew York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins at home. One of the main characters of the meeting was Artemy Panarin, who played his 500th game in the NHL regular season in his career. hockey players, “Rangers” held on their site another match against “Pittsburgh”. This season, the wards of Gerard Gallan successfully resist the powerful Penguins, and in the final face-to-face meeting, the Blueshirts won the third victory out of four. Now direct competitors in the Capital Division can look forward to new battles already in the playoffs. For now, Evgeni Malkin and Co. will clearly prefer to forget their last trip to Madison Square Garden this NHL season as soon as possible. According to the game guests in no way inferior to the “Rangers”, and in some components and completely surpassed the opponent. Mike Sullivan's team often threw and generally threatened the gates of Igor Shesterkin, but the main contender for the Vezina Trophy, following the results of the current draw of the regular season, the Penguins, who were left without Sidney Crosby, could not upset. Shesterkin — or Shesti, as Rangers fans often call him — made 30 saves and filed his fourth shutout of the season. The same number, by the way, and his counterpart from “Pittsburgh” Tristan Jerry, but today the Canadian capitulated three times. -277752844/c-11268209?autostart=false» width=»540″ height=»360″>In the first period, Jerry repelled all 10 shots, but passed already in the debut of the second 20-minute. Mika Zibanejad, running out of the gate, famously rolled the puck to a fiver, it touched the fallen Chris Kreider and went to Frank Vatrano. Rookie “Rangers” marked the sixth goal in the 12th match in the team from New York. Ten minutes later, Artemiy Panarin announced himself at the top of his voice. Andrew Kopp cut a terrific pass through the line of two defenders, and Khlebushek, removing another Pittsburgh player on the counter, sent the puck into the goal from the backhand. With such a wonderful goal, Artemy brightly celebrated his jubilee, 500th match in the NHL regular season. And it turned out to be historical in every sense for the Russian. =false» width=»540″ height=»360″>So, Panarin entered the top six undrafted players in the history of the league (the NHL draft was introduced in 1963) in terms of the number of points scored in the first 500 games. Thanks to the goal, Artemy brought their number to 558 (185+373). Only Wayne Gretzky (1186 points), Peter Shtyastny (759), Bobby Orr (670), Adam Oates (570) and Phil Esposito (561) remain more productive than the Russians. If we take into account the current NHL players, then here Panarin has gathered impressive company. Only Sidney Crosby (706), Connor McDavid (680), Alexander Ovechkin (633) and Evgeni Malkin (611) differed more often in their first 500 matches in the regular league championships. In the race of scorers this season, Panarin, by the way, is above the same Crosby, Ovechkin and Malkin, and only McDavid remains out of reach for the entire league.Dryden Hunt closed Panarin's bright anniversary with a beautiful victory for the Blueshirts with a goal into an empty net at the last minute. 3-0 — «Rangers» strengthened their position in the Capital Division and did not allow the «Carolina» to go into the lead. However, a new meeting with the “Pittsburgh” already in the playoffs is becoming more and more obvious for the wards of Gallan.