It is not so much that Artemi Panarin was not there at his locker on Wednesday to talk about the past, it is that No. 10 did not remember it.
Did not remember the soliloquies he delivered both late in the season and then early in the playoffs about the competing nature of the need to play within a structure, but his need to play with more freedom and be more of a risk-taker.
“I feel great now,” Panarin told The Post ahead of Thursday’s 3-2 Garden defeat to Toronto in the inconsequential season finale. “I can’t say how I felt last year.
“I don’t remember.”
Panarin, though, does remember what was largely a frustrating misadventure in the playoffs despite scoring the Game 7 overtime winner against the Penguins that ended the first round.
He remembers some of the criticism he took for being too loose with the puck.
“When I see an opportunity, I have to take it. It can be a little bit dangerous, it could be a dangerous choice, but I think that still could be best,” Panarin said. “I feel that last year we were down in series a lot of the time so I thought we needed to take risks.
“Who was going to take a risk if not me?”
Asked and answered.
“It usually works for me,” the 31-year-old winger said before scoring his 29th goal on Thursday. “I keep trying to play disciplined. I know both blue lines are dangerous places to take risks. I try not to do it so much.”
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The Battle of the Hudson VII is next.
The Devils are next in a first-round matchup that has been anticipated for weeks. Hockey will be on center stage on both sides of the river.
A playoff series takes on a life of its own but this does not promise to be an old-school meat grinder. There should be more open ice in this one than in any of the three series the Blueshirts played last year against Pittsburgh, Carolina and Tampa Bay.
There will be more opportunities on the rush. Hence, more opportunities for Panarin to dance.
More opportunities to create off the rush. But New Jersey presents a lethal challenge on the counterattack.
Pucks through traffic that do not reach their destination are just as likely to end up in back of the Blueshirts’ net as not.
More freedom, perhaps, but more discipline will be demanded of the Rangers’ skill guys. The Devils are one team with which the Rangers won’t want to trade chances, even if Igor Shesterkin enters the series at the top of his game after months of pedestrian work.
The Rangers have more weapons than they did last time around. There are Patrick Kane and Vlad Tarasenko. There is Vincent Trocheck. There are the Kids, one year older.
But the Blueshirts will need Panarin, who is one of the greatest mega-money free-agent signings in league history. Four years into that seven-year deal under which he earns an average of $11,642,857, he has become the third Ranger in franchise history to record 90 points or more in three different seasons with 95 (32-63) in 2019-20, 96 last year (22-74) and 92 this year (29-63).
The others are legends named Jean Ratelle and Mark Messier.
He ranks fifth in the NHL in points-per game since slipping into the Blueshirt, recording 1.27 per, trailing only slam-dunk Hall-of-Famers Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov.
Ratelle and Messier. McDavid, Draisaitl, MacKinnon and Kucherov.
That is the company Panarin keeps.
“I love it here. I love New York and the organization,” he said. “People are always nice to me. Nobody is negative. Everyone tries to support me.”
Well, there was some negative after last year’s playoffs. Panarin joked that, “It’s sometimes good not to understand everything in English,” but there was something that seemed to bother him.
“If I make mistakes or make too many dangerous plays, people sometimes say that I don’t care,” he said. “I care.”
In response to that, I told him what I am telling you: I have never heard anyone suggest that Panarin does not care.
Tarasenko has fit in seamlessly since his Feb. 10 acquisition from St. Louis. It has not been quite the same for Kane since he was obtained from Chicago on Feb. 28. Both, of course, have history with Panarin.
“They are both my friends,” Panarin said. “When they got here at the beginning, I maybe put too much pressure on myself to try and make them better on the ice and to be responsible for them.
“But now they are pretty comfortable with the team. They know how to play on their own so I don’t really have to do that anymore.”
The playoffs beckon. The Devils await, Panarin will be under the spotlight. It will be hot. More is expected this time around. More is expected of the Rangers this time around.
“The older and more experienced you are, there is more responsibility. I don’t worry about pressure. Honestly, no,” he said. “My job is to be 100 percent ready to contribute and support my teammates. I’m excited. I love hockey. I love our team.
“I’m going to try and enjoy this and do everything I can to win.”