Can Rangers' Artemi Panarin use remarkable regular season as springboard to playoff redemption?

Artemi Panarin just put together the greatest regular season of his life, one so good he was showered with chants of "M-V-P, M-V-P" by the Madison Square Garden crowd multiple times Monday night during the Rangers’ regular season finale.

He finished with a career-best 49 goals and 120 points as the main offensive piston for a talented team. He added 71 assists, the second-highest total in his nine-year career, and played well enough overall that he enjoyed some serious shut-eye throughout the schedule.

"I slept well this regular season," Panarin said in the aftermath of the Rangers’ 4-0 victory over Ottawa on Monday, a win that gave the Blueshirts the most points in the NHL this season. "Almost every night. It’s good to have that experience in life."

Now, however, Panarin knows: "No time for relaxing."

He’s right. The Rangers begin the NHL playoffs this weekend with high expectations, both inside and outside the organization. While they are a legit threat to win the Stanley Cup, this is also a critical playoffs for the Blueshirts, who were ousted by the Devils last year in a crushing first-round loss.

And it’s enormous for Panarin, too. He was mostly invisible against New Jersey, failing to score a single goal and mustering only two assists. He had a minus-two rating. The season before, when the Rangers made a somewhat-surprising run to the Eastern Conference Finals, Panarin’s play was uneven.

So perhaps his season can be his springboard to a playoff redemption arc.

The 32-year-old winger has been red-hot, finishing with points in each of the last 13 games (11 goals, 15 assists), including goal No. 49 Monday night, when it was clear he and the Rangers wanted to get him to the hallowed mark of 50. He had to "settle" for one of the best seasons in Rangers history, falling three points shy of Jaromir Jagr’s single-season team record for points. Jagr had 123 in 2005-06.

Entering play Tuesday, Panarin ranked fourth in the league in points and fifth in both goals and assists. His 49 goals are 17 more than his previous single-season best.

It’s a great way to enter this crucial time.

Asked following Monday’s game if he was looking forward to getting back to the playoffs, especially considering last year, Panarin said, "I feel the same.

“It kind of sounds not great – if I feel the same, maybe play the same. But I hope not. I’m just excited and I can’t wait until the playoffs start. I feel a little bit uncomfortable that it’s so long until it starts.”

Panarin famously shaved his long locks months ago. Someone asked if that made the difference in his season. Panarin laughed and then joked, "I am lighter."

Asked more seriously about differences, Panarin offered: "Partners, coaching staff, whole team. God. Lucky sometimes. So, just everything."

Panarin was, deservedly so, in a very good mood following Monday’s game. He chuckled over his efforts to add a second goal, which would have made him the fifth Ranger to get to 50. (The four who have are Vic Hadfield, Adam Graves, Jagr, and Chris Kreider).

When someone told him how many shot attempts he had (seven shots, six other attempts that were blocked and five missed shots), Panarin roared. "Really?" he said, laughing.

The Rangers thought Panarin deserved the chances.

"Trying at the end there, just to see if we could put him in the right spot. Couple looks," Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette said.

"Regardless of that, I know it (50 goals) is a number, but it doesn't change what he’s meant to us and what he’s done this year."

Now Panarin has a chance to carry all of that – what he’s meant to the Rangers, his remarkable season, all those goals – into the playoffs, which, ahem, bedeviled him last year.

He’s been so good, it’s easy to think he can.