Tantalizing but troubling Richard Panik still seeking consistency

NEW YORK — At his best, he’s a menace around the net, a sturdy body who can throw his weight around on the forecheck, jar pucks loose and pounce on rebounds in the goalmouth. When he scores, he scores in bunches, and looks like a guy capable of playing top-line minutes and producing at top-line levels.

At his worst, he can disappear for long stretches — periods, games, weeks at a time. He hesitates to use his big shot, lays off on the forecheck, coasts in the defensive zone.

When he’s on, he’s on fire. When he’s off, he’s off the map.

He’s Richard Panik, and he’s starting to look like the new Bryan Bickell — a tantalizing, teasing player of great promise, but troubling inconsistency.

“He’s one of those players that, if he’s consistent for 82 games, he’s at a different level,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’ve seen him dominate puck areas. We’ve seen him with speed off the rush. We’ve seen him take the puck to the net. When he’s physical, he’s more of a presence on the ice and has the puck a lot more. So he’s capable of doing it, and I think bringing that for 82 games is tough for anybody. But we’d like to see more consistency in his game.”

That’s always been the knock on Panik. It’s why Toronto coach Mike Babcock apparently didn’t deem him worthy of the Maple Leafs’ rebuild, and why the Hawks got him for just career minor-leaguer Jeremy Morin. But the swings have been wilder than ever this season.

Six games into the season, Panik led the NHL with six goals, including a hat trick in the third game of the season against Nashville. He had nine points through eight games and appeared to be the answer to the Hawks’ long-standing question at left wing on Jonathan Toews’ line.

Then Panik went 17 games without a goal. He has just one goal in his last 24 games, with just assists.

Even Panik knew the start was something of a fluke. But he believes the real Panik lies somewhere between that amazing start and the prolonged drought.

“I know it’s not going to be like that beginning all season long,” he said. “If you could do that it would be nice, but it’s not going to happen. You’re going to have some ups and downs in certain games. But it can’t be 10 games bad, one game good. I have to eliminate that. I have to level it off more.”

Even without the production, Panik has been better of late. A few games playing with Dennis Rasmussen and Marcus Kruger seemed to spark him, and he’s been showing off his skill more often — a nifty move on a breakaway against Florida, a brilliant bit of forechecking to directly set up a Rasmussen goal against Arizona, a couple of slick dangles to create scoring chances against the Rangers, a deft skate-to-stick reception of an off-target pass to get a scoring chance against Dallas.

On top of that, he’s basically the only Hawks forward who throws body checks. It’s a squirrelly, inconsistently tabulated stat, but Panik leads the Hawks with 64 hits through 30 games. No other Hawks forward has more than 44, and only defenseman Michal Rozsival averages more hits per game than Panik’s 2.1. And Panik isn’t hitting for the sake of hitting — his hits tend to come in the offensive zone, in an effort to regain control of the puck.

“We don’t have a lot of guys that are that type,” Quenneville said. “So we don’t mind him bringing that game in, game out.”

And that’s the trick — doing it every night. Panik has shown he has all the tools to be an above-average, perhaps even dominant player in the NHL. But he has yet to show he can do it on a regular basis, for an extended period of time. If he can start doing that, in the words of Toews, “Look out.”

“I need to focus on getting involved in the game, using my body more,” Panik said. “That’s what I wasn’t doing when I had that slump. It’s those details, the small things. I can go to the net more, too, you know? I need to do those things every night. I feel good right now, and I want to keep it like this for as long as I can.”

NOTE: Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook made the trip to New York on Monday. Toews has missed nine straight games with a back injury, while Seabrook has sat out the last two games.

Email: mlazerus@suntimes.com

Twitter: @marklazerus