Artemi Panarin is so excited to get out, he’s practically dancing. Who even put him there to begin with?
Okay, so he put himself in there when he took the Blackhawks‘ lone penalty of their 2-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues: an interference call against Colton Parayko. But still, Panarin only has 18 penalty minutes. That was just the ninth penalty of his NHL career – he isn’t used to being in there!
In fact, his career high for penalty minutes is 53, back when he was a 20-year-old playing in the KHL. But he’s matured since then. He’s 24 now, he’s in the NHL, and he doesn’t take penalties, dang it.
Panarin is actually tied for second on the Blackhawks in penalty differential this season. Jonathan Toews leads the team with +7 – as in, he’s drawn seven more penalties than he’s taken – but then Panarin and Patrick Kane are in second with penalty differentials of +4.
That’s typically what happens with skill players, though: they draw more calls than they take. So when they’re in the box, they want out. Good thing he got out!