Inside the Artemi Panarin-Vladimir Tarasenko connection that began 12 years ago -

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Artemi Panarin smiled broadly when asked how well he remembers the first time he and Vladimir Tarasenko connected on a goal.

“Remember? It’s maybe the best goal of my life, also now with Game 7 against Pittsburgh (last spring),” Panarin said. “That was the beginning for me. He passed to me, winning goal. Always in my memory.”

That night in Buffalo — Jan. 5, 2011 — wasn’t exactly the birth of a legend or the birth of a great partnership. Panarin was a bit of a nobody in the amateur hockey world: an undersized, undrafted 19-year-old in his first international competition for Russia, playing mostly fourth-line duty in that World Junior tournament.

“He was at all the camps before World Junior, we got to know him, a good guy,” Tarasenko said. “Good player too, of course. Maybe people just didn’t see what he can do.”

Tarasenko was a star on the rise. Captain of Russia’s World Junior squad, a first-round pick of the Blues (the Rangers, after taking Dylan McIlrath at 10 tried to trade up to get Tarasenko at 16 but couldn’t pull it off) to go along with fellow high picks Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov. Thanks to a 3-0 deficit through two periods, some line-shuffling and a furious comeback, Tarasenko-to-Panarin became something big.

Now, they’re both somebodies. Stars in the NHL, back together for a run at something great.

“We had a very tight group,” Tarasenko said of Russia’s World Junior team. “I believe if you have a tight group you can achieve a lot of your goals. We had it in 2011 for Russia, we had it in St. Louis in 2019. Both times it was a very good group, good guys, everyone stick together, stand up for each other.”

The Russian team in 2011 had already come back in dramatic fashion. In the quarterfinals, it scored twice in the final 3:41 of regulation to get to overtime against Finland, where Kuznetsov won it. In the semifinal, it got a tying goal with 1:27 to play and a shootout win over Finland.

And in the gold-medal game, played on U.S. soil but in an arena with a decidedly pro-Canada tilt, the Russians fell behind 3-0 before a wild third period. Panarin scored the first of his two goals to get Russia on the board, Tarasenko tied the game with 12:31 to go and then the rush by Tarasenko, the net drive by Panarin and the eventual winner with 4:38 to play.

Even with that breakout performance, Panarin still didn’t get much interest from the NHL. He went back to his mid-range KHL team, Vityaz, without much fanfare.

“Some people maybe weren’t thinking I was a good player before world juniors and probably not after,” Panarin said. “I only scored two goals in the final. But it’s more for me to give me confidence. I started feeling something. But Tarasenko, Kuznetsov, Orlov — different planets than me.”

It wasn’t until three years later, after Panarin moved on to KHL powerhouse SKA, that the NHL came calling. The rest is history.

(Listen to the full podcast episode here: The Garden Faithful)

Panarin didn’t think much of getting to play with Tarasenko beyond 2011. “We say goodbye after that, stay friends,” he said. “I don’t even have my dreams then because it’s just too far away for me.”

Panarin signed with the Hawks, so he battled plenty with Tarasenko’s Blues, but again there wasn’t much thought to get another chance to play together.

“He’s in St. Louis so many years, you don’t expect him to leave,” Panarin said. “But we get to be here after all.”

And all it took was two shifts together for Panarin and Tarasenko to connect again. They may not have much chance to do so in the near future, since Panarin caught fire in Raleigh on Saturday after Gerard Gallant moved him off Tarasenko’s line, but things change quickly around here. As they did in that third period a dozen years ago.

Things have flipped a bit too. Tarasenko is the one coming in a bit cold to a room where Panarin holds court, the biggest star on a team dotted with them. Tarasenko is no slouch, but he is out of his element after so many years in St. Louis.

“It’s hard, I’m not gonna lie,” Tarasenko said. “I’m still talking to the same guys from when I was young, so many years with one team and now it’s mostly new guys, new organization. Everyone here is very nice and they try to make it easy, but mentally, it was a pretty hard few days.”

This reunion may not last long. Tarasenko is a free agent this summer and, unless he’s eager to take far less than he might get on the open market, the Rangers right now have younger core players to sign as the higher priority. But Chris Drury sent a first-round pick to the Blues to see if Tarasenko is motivated enough to help the Rangers go deep in the playoffs after a couple of contentious final years with St. Louis.

Perhaps these two have more clutch moments in store these next few months.

(Photo of Artemi Panarin and Vladimir Tarasenko: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

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