It wasn’t a Picasso. Fortunately for the New York Rangers, it didn’t have to be in what amounted to a 7-3 runaway over the depleted Tampa Bay Lightning.

Buoyed by a season-high four assists from a revived Artemi Panarin, the Rangers pulled away from the Lightning to roll to their league best eighth road win in 10 games (8-1-1). They’ve now won six of their last eight to move up to fourth place in a crowded Metropolitan Division.

For a second time in three nights, Vincent Trocheck was instrumental in the team’s success. With the Rangers nursing a 4-3 lead under duress in a poorly played second period, Trocheck scored a big goal with 2:41 remaining.

After the teams combined for seven goals in a wild and wacky first period, which lacked any goaltending from Igor Shesterkin and Andrei Vasilevskiy, the Rangers were mostly on the defensive in the second.

The Lightning kept pinning them in, with the top line of Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Jake Guentzel having their way. Kucherov had a couple of close calls. On one scoring chance, he skated past three Rangers and forced Shesterkin into a tough pad save to keep the Rangers ahead.

On a power play that Point drew on Shesterkin for tripping, the Lightning had it set up. However, Darren Raddysh was unable to hit the net on a Guentzel setup. Had the dangerous one-timer been accurate, it probably ties the game. Fortunately for Shesterkin, he missed.

At one point, shots were 11-2 Bolts in the period. But in the later stages, the Rangers finally started moving their feet. A strong shift from the Noah Laba line created some momentum. During it, rookie Gabe Perreault was out with Laba and Conor Sheary. He was switched with Will Cuylle, who scored on the power play back in a four-goal first period.

Cuylle has goals in two straight. He finished the game with Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller, who finally got a break when a Zibanejad banked off the skate of Erik Cernak and Miller for a goal. He badly needed it. It was his first goal in six games and ended a four-game pointless streak.

On a quick outlet from Vladislav Gavrikov up for Panarin, he made a lead pass for Trocheck at the opposite side of the Tampa Bay blue line. With Trocheck moving in on a two-on-one, Vasilevskiy lost his balance and fell to the ice. That left Trocheck a wide open net to shoot at for his first of the season with 2:41 left. That goal gave the Rangers the breathing room they needed to carry into the third period.

With the Lightning playing the game minus captain Victor Hedman, Anthony Cirelli, and Ryan McDonagh (IR), they ran out of gas. By the start of the third, Lightning coach Jon Cooper replaced Vasilevskiy with backup Jonas Johansson. He made one really good save early to keep it at 5-3.

However, Johansson had no chance on another Rangers’ odd man rush that involved Panarin and Trocheck. With the Lightning defense backing in, Panarin moved the puck to a pinching Urho Vaakanainen. Not the most offensively gifted player, the defenseman made a nice pass across for a cruising Trocheck, who finished off his second with ease to salt the game away.

There was a little bit of animosity when Lightning goal scorer Scott Sabourin crashed Shesterkin’s net and gave him a whack in search of a rebound. An incensed Shesterkin immediately gave it right back to Sabourin, who then got into it with Gavrikov. Both received minor penalties during the scrum.

Following Cuylle’s empty netter, Sabourin wanted to go at someone when the buzzer sounded. But things calmed down.

The game started crazy. A Yanni Gourde offensive zone cross-checking minor put the Rangers on an early power play. They caught a break when Adam Fox had his shot take a funny carom off the back boards, allowing Cuylle to bury the rebound opportunity for a 1-0 lead.

Over a couple of minutes later, Miller had Zibanejad’s centering feed deflect off Cernak and him to make it a two-goal lead at 3:31.

That forced Cooper to take a timeout to lay into his bench. They responded by getting the next goal from Sabourin. Taking advantage of a bad pinch in by Fox, Jack Finley, and Curt Douglas trapped both Fox and Zibanejad inside the blue line. That allowed Sabourin to come in and pick high glove on Shesterkin from the left circle. It wasn’t a good goal to give up. He wasn’t screened on the play.

It was defense optional on the next goal. Carson Soucy, who earlier in the game had a huge hit on Brandon Hagel that ended his night early, moved the puck to Panarin. He then found Lafreniere open for a wrist shot that beat Vasilevskiy to make it 3-1. Lafreniere has goals in two straight and six points over the last four games.

But the Lightning responded again to cut the deficit to one. This time, Shesterkin gave up a bad rebound on a Gourde shot that was put back in by Zemgus Girgensons with 6:01 left.

However, the chaos continued. On another Lightning defensive miscue, Will Borgen got a nice reward when he had his shot deflect in off a Lightning player for his first. The goal was unassisted.

But with Gourde in the box for slashing, the Rangers hurt themselves. On a bad read by Fox, he forced a pass into the middle while under pressure at the point. The Lightning quickly turned that into a shorthanded goal. J.J. Moser’s pass sent Guentzel away. He then came in from the left side and deked Shesterkin to tuck a backhand in to make it 4-3.

From there, the Rangers were able to rebound. Shesterkin settled down to finish with 33 saves on 36 shots. He improved to 8-3-1 versus the Lightning. Vasilevskiy (5 GA on 13 shots) fell to 7-9-2 against the Rangers.