The NHL Redux: Artemi Panarin, out of nowhere
There's nothing accidental about winning three Stanley Cups in six seasons.
The Chicago Blackhawks have been made, and now thrice restored with incredible precision, economy, and care. It's an effectiveness and overall defiance of overarching parity elsewhere that appears to know no bounds.
But the latest overhaul has a splash of serendipity with its deliberateness, which traces back to the team's five-day window between playoff rounds last spring on its way to the title trifecta.
It was four days after the Nashville Predators were dispatched in six, and two before claiming Game 1 of the second-round series with the Minnesota Wild when Chicago negotiated an entry-level contract with undrafted, anonymous free-agent import Artemi Panarin.
At the time, during another postseason run, the forward's signing was barely a footnote. Besides, this was a player who had only resurfaced on management's radar three months into the KHL season. Intended or not, though, Panarin's putting pen to paper set another critical offseason in motion.
So after a handful of Blackhawks kissed Stanley for a third time, and others perhaps for the last, the brass went back to work shedding bodies and money and making trades and other signings while still not really knowing what it had in that slight, high-volume scorer acquired months before.
The Bread Man
"We were very excited about him coming over here - not sure what to expect. And then right from the first day at Notre Dame and training camp, watching his skill level, you could see right away how talented he really was," Blackhawks assistant general manager Norm Maciver told theScore.
"We weren't really sure, but once that line started to seize it, it was just that instant chemistry between two very talented players (in Panarin and Patrick Kane) playing together. They've been exceptional. He's certainly exceeded expectations."
It was in those summer dealings where Panarin and Kane, perhaps indirectly, were afforded the means to become the most thrilling, high-scoring attacking tandem outside Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin through the season's first six weeks.
Two months after Panarin was acquired, Chicago rocked the hockey sphere in trading former top-line winger Brandon Saad to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a package that included four players, including two-way, top-six pivot Artem Anisimov, who shares a Russian passport with Panarin.
Anisimov was always intended to be the true No. 2 center Chicago has quite effectively placed a band-aid over in the past, but he's become, perhaps not by design, the on-ice traverse linking to similarly distinct attacking talents from different parts of the world in both performance and spoken word.
"Anisimov's been terrific. He's extremely smart, very reliable; he works, he's sound defensively. He understands his role on that line exceptionally well. He's just been a great complement to both those players. He's an excellent player himself," MacIver said.
"If there's anything to talk about on the bench, with Kane or with the coaches, they can go through Anisimov," he added.
Dynasty by design
This isn't a case of a blind squirrel stumbling across a nut. The Blackhawks remain resolute champions in that they draft, acquire, harness, woo, nurture, and appease elite talent without relent.
And it's that exemplary work from an exceptionally talented management and scouting team that has Chicago now enjoying spillover benefits from previous successes.
As much as half of the league apparently showed interest in Panarin, who ultimately sided with an organization that might not have necessarily been as high on him as other keen observers.
"It's very difficult, in our situation, drafting late in the first round. You aren't gonna get a Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel type of player, so you gotta really do your homework and try to find the diamonds in the rough," MacIver said.
The unheralded 24-year-old from relative obscurity is scoring at a point-per-game pace, and has now emerged as the betting favorite for the Calder Trophy in the same season that saw two generational, can't-miss talents break into the league.
Who could have ever envisioned that?
THE TEN
10) John Klingberg: With five points in three games, it was just another predictably excellent week from the sophomore D-man in Big D. He now leads all blue-liners in scoring and is just a solo helper behind teammate Tyler Seguin for the league lead.
9) Gary Bettman: $9.6 million!? Damn.
8) Erik Karlsson: Karlsson rhymed off goals in three consecutive games after failing to find the back of the net in 14 to start the season. He'd be higher on this list, but boy was he turned by Dylan Larkin.
7) Sergei Bobrovsky: Bobrovsky is back to helping coaches. The Blue Jackets' netminder allowed four goals on 78 shots this week, winning each of his three starts.
6) Brandon Saad: While at the other end, Saad is starting to ramp it up offensively. He scored in each of the Jackets' three wins this week, including potting a pair in a 3-1 upset of the Blues.
5) Tyler Bozak: Two goals, four assists, and three power-play points for the Maple Leafs this week. He's probably available in your fantasy league.
4) New York Rangers: The streak is now up to nine games and Rangers goaltenders have allowed 42 fewer goals than that of the Flames.
3) Evgeni Malkin: Geno responded the best way one can after incidentally hinting to dissension in the Penguins' room. This.
2) Matt Duchene: Trade whispers can bring out the best in some. How's four goals and nine points over the last four games? Well, it represents 60 percent of his season total.
1) Mike Babcock: Dude's just killing it.
THE TAKES
1) Save for Sid, the NHL's greatest offensive talents are scoring more than enough.
And isn't that the whole point? Scoring should he hard. Kane, Jamie Benn, and Seguin - or, in other words, legitimately special attacking talents - are setting up an Art Ross Trophy race to 110 points while the rest of us are consumed with "fixing" scoring.
2) The NHL absolutely got it right in trying a new 3-on-3 format for the All-Star Game ...
But it'll be up to the players to make it work. A briefcase full of money should help.
3) Mike Condon's story is nice and all ...
But it's got nothing on Mats Zuccarello's. The diminutive Rangers forward had lost his ability to speak late last season when he suffered a fractured skull, and now he's back and dominating on the Blueshirts' top line. Zuccarello has seven points in the last four games.
4) Welcome to the 2015-16 season, Carl Hagelin.
The Ducks' offseason add recorded a goal and two assists over the weekend versus the Hurricanes, which represents 60 percent of his output this year.
5) Shooting percentages are being beaten to death.
Because the season's still young, and it's the easiest "analytic" to wrap one's head around.
6) Jhonas Enroth is one capable backup, at least in Los Angeles.
How's 3-0 with a 0.67 goals-against average and .979 save percentage?
7) The only way to slow Alex Ovechkin ...
... is to put a career-defining milestone in front of him.
8) The Jets are better than the Oilers ...
... but their goal differentials now suggest otherwise.
9) Jonathan Bernier's "Game 7" wasn't a shot at Reimer ...
... at least not intentionally.
10) And the Tampa Bay Lightning are in real trouble.