Refs will be looking for retaliation on Panarin and will call every spooky glance at him.
Go after someone else instead. Then Panarin just got his teammate bonked. The repercussions become team-wide, as does the responsibility.
I'd take my chances.
Go after him, hard. Toe the line but don't drift over it and take a major penalty. If you catch him with your head down, take it. If you catch him puck watching, take the hit. If you catch him vulnerable, take the hit. If there isn't a chance otherwise, then toss him around in post-whistle scrums. Doing stuff like that might get you minor penalty for roughing/charging/interference but you can go after him hard without really going over the line to take a major penalty. If you get the penalty, you kill it for Oshie. It's a no-brainer.
I'd be pretty certain that the way this plays out... if Caps go after Panarin a lot then the Rangers are going to respond in a way of their own. You'd think most of their players are pretty comfortable that they are going to win the series when the dust is settled. They aren't going to sit back and just play when their best player get targeted. Caps are going to get their PP's from their revenges, you'd think. And that's also how you get the Rangers out of their comfort zone. I don't want this to turn into a PP fest because the special teams are basically the only thing Rangers are elite at but they are pretty inexperienced team. You can get them railed off if you go after Panarin every single chance you get.
It's 0-2 series already. We need to throw Rangers out of their game. The further this game and series go from actual hockey, the better chance we have to win. Get them out of their comfort zone and take over. We've been losing series 2-0 before... that one time in 2018, for example.