Artemi Panarin stood before his locker in the corner of the dressing room, virtually hidden from sight. Engulfed by an ever-growing semicircle of visitors, he began to fidget, searching for any possible escape route from what had become another uncomfortable interrogation.
Just 49 games into his inaugural NHL season, Panarin, a 24-year-old Russian left wing for the Chicago Blackhawks, still struggles with media sessions in English, relying on an interpreter. Only one teammate speaks his language.
In this moment, surrounded in front of his locker, Panarin did not seem comfortable. After only a few minutes of fielding inquiries about his on-ice success, Panarin, the NHL’s highest-scoring rookie, turned to the interpreter, smiled and passed along a message.
“He doesn’t like these questions,” said Stan Stiopkin, the Blackhawks’ recently hired interpreter.
The group laughed. Panarin, wearing a red team-issued hooded pullover, smiled, attempting to hide his discomfort.
Despite the palpable unease he feels toward outsiders, Panarin has found a comfort zone playing with the NHL’s top scorer, Patrick Kane, and his fellow Russian Artem Anisimov.
Panarin has 16 goals and 29 assists and had emerged as a top candidate for the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s top rookie.
He has done so primarily by establishing a chemistry with Kane that transcends the language barrier. The two go off on their own to communicate in a way that few understand, creating an on-ice relationship that has been behind the Blackhawks’ recent surge. Entering Thursday’s game, Chicago had won 12 in a row.
“Hockey is the same — we’re playing the same game,” Panarin said through Stiopkin. “We have the same understanding of the game, and that has helped us play together.”
Panarin’s understanding of Kane’s game is not limited to the time they have spent together on the ice for the Blackhawks. Before he arrived in the United States, Panarin, who produced 26 goals and 36 assists last season for SKA St. Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League, studied Kane’s game, taking note of his skill set and contributions to the Blackhawks’ winning three Stanley Cup championships during the past six seasons.
Panarin, whom teammates refer to as Bread Man because of the similarity of his last name to the Panera Bread bakery chain, has not missed a beat since joining Kane on Chicago’s second line.
After Panarin’s best friend and former interpreter Viktor Tikhonov was claimed off waivers by the Arizona Coyotes on Dec. 6, Panarin’s connection to Kane only grew stronger despite the lengths they had to go to understand each other.
The two often use humor to aid in their communication, but Panarin also credited Kane with helping to improve his English, which Kane insists is better than Panarin lets on.
“Kane is actually a guy that can sit down and talk with him,” Tikhonov said. “He knows those words that Panarin understands. They can sit down for 20 minutes, and they’ll be talking about something. He’s the only one on this team that can do that.”
Like Panarin, Kane credited fluency in “the language of hockey” for the productivity the pair has shown.
“We see and want to play the game in a very similar fashion,” Kane said. “Sometimes, when you get out there and a guy does what you want him to do, things can click pretty easy.”
Kane marveled at the way his rookie linemate has adjusted to the NHL game. Of late, Panarin has become even more of a scoring threat, notching four goals in back-to-back games earlier this month against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Panarin acknowledged that early on, he looked to Kane perhaps too much rather than looking for scoring opportunities himself. As small a sample size as last week’s two-game burst may be, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville has noticed Panarin taking on a greater goal-scoring approach, which has allowed his natural abilities to rise to the surface.
“Whether he’s producing or not, he has done a lot of good things, and that line has been outstanding for us,” Quenneville said. “He certainly has a great shot, and when he starts thinking with a shoot-first mentality, it’s adding to his game.”
Panarin had been on general manager Stan Bowman’s radar for the past two seasons, and Bowman made his move after Panarin helped SKA St. Petersburg to a KHL championship. Panarin’s agent, Tom Lynn, said seven or eight NHL clubs expressedinterest in Panarin, who signed a two-year deal with Chicago last spring.
Adding the talented Panarin came at a critical time for the Blackhawks. After they captured another Stanley Cup in June, salary cap limitations led to the departures of several reliable forwards, including Patrick Sharp, Brandon Saad and Brad Richards.
His issues with English aside, Panarin has adjusted quickly to his new life in Chicago. Despite not having Tikhonov to serve as his go-between, Panarin has gone from staying with a Russian family to living on his own.
Being embraced by his new city and teammates has made life easier while he makes a name for himself in Chicago and around the league. He pays little if any attention to his fellow rookies, focusing instead on improving his game, leaving his statistical output to take care of itself, as it did last season in his final year in the KHL.
“I did not think about that,” Panarin said. “Last season was successful, and I was expecting something good from this season, too.”
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