Panarin poised for moment after past disappointments

LAST YEAR is a neon sign that has never stopped flashing, just like those lights from the fast-food chicken place across the street. One victory after another hasn’t dimmed the wattage.

There are fears that it will happen again, fears that this team that has gone 30 years since its one-and-only Cup since 1940, will disappoint again the way the Emile Francis teams did in the early ’70’s, the way King Henrik Lundqvist’s Court fell shy last decade, the way the club disintegrated last spring.

A spectacular regular season has raised the stakes. No team in franchise history has won as many games as this club that annexed its 54th victory with a thrilling 3-2 shootout victory over the Islanders at the Garden on Saturday afternoon that decreased the Magic Number for clinching first seed in the East to two points. The Blueshirts can clinch it by defeating the Senators at home Monday in the regular-season finale.

If last year is a flashing neon sign, it has not blinded Artemi Panarin. Indeed, it seems to have drawn No. 10 into its orbit. From the moment last season ended in infamy, Panarin has been on a mission, if not to redeem himself, to be his best. No fuss, no muss, Panarin has attacked this season regardless of the length of his hair.

There was a cavalcade of Panarin in this one, good, bad, ugly, sensational, emotional. There was the 2-2 tying goal from the left circle at 15:43 of the third period off a designed play when Vincent Trocheck went back with the puck that became the Rangers’ first goal at five-on-five since the one at 16:56 of the third period three games ago. There was the shootout goal in the leadoff position after which Panarin pumped his fist repeatedly.

In the interim, the Rangers had scored three power-play goals and one shorthanded goal in losing to the Islanders on Tuesday, losing to the Flyers on Thursday and trailing the Islanders in this one. It seemed to release bottled-up frustration for No. 10 and his teammates.

“I was frustrated when I lost the first six minutes of the second period because of the PK,” Panarin said jokingly after sitting on the bench for the period’s first 5:19 while his team was shorthanded. “For sure, [there was some frustration] but it’s not about five-onfive, it’s about goals.

“It’s about wins.”

Panarin’s tying goal was his 48th of the season, leaving him one more chance to become the fifth Ranger in history to hit 50 after Vic Hadfield (50 in 1971-72), Adam Graves (52 in 1993-94), Jaromir Jagr (54 in 2005-06) and Chris Kreider (52 in 2021-22). Panarin has 118 points, second-most in team history, five shy of Jagr’s 2005-06 record. But there was last spring in which Panarin looked lost against the Devils and there were two springs ago through which Panarin was inconsistent and too often unreliable in the run to the conference finals, during which he was smothered by the Lightning.

Panarin has been resolute in refusing to discuss last year’s playoffs in which a tenuous relationship with head coach Gerard Gallant deteriorated. We’ve been told that the winger was aired out by the coach in front of the team in an incident that did not go over well with anyone. Panarin has also said that he does not want to talk about what’s coming up next week.

Talk would mean nothing, anyway. It’s about what Panarin can do, not what he says. Since he signed as a free agent in 2019, Panarin has the fourth-most points in the league. Selected First Team All-Star left wing in 2019-20, he is poised to become the first Rangers forward to be named twice to the First Team in more than six decades, since Andy Bathgate in 1959 and 1962. He has been everything.

And this year, the best season of a career that began in Chicago in 2015-16, Panarin has dedicated himself to playing a playoff style. He has been attacking the inside, shooting the puck from high-danger areas, firing six shots on Ilya Sorokin off 10 attempts, his shooting percentage at a career high 16.2.

There has been more of a north aspect to his high-step game as Panarin has been able to play off linemates Trocheck and simpatico winger Alexis Lafreniere to enter the zone with speed and creative options. Panarin has driven the slot while keeping eastwest turnovers to a minimum, though what on earth was No. 10 thinking when he gave the puck away in the neutral zone with 10 seconds left in OT that forced Igor Shesterkin to windmill Mathew Barzal with 7.4 seconds remaining?

There’s one game to go, one game to clinch, one game for Panarin to hunt for 50, one game for which the Rangers can go out in style. Before the fun begins. Before Panarin does whatever he can to turn the playoffs into Artemi Time while the white-hot lights will be shining.