The next observer who describes Evgeni Malkin as a north-south player will be -- and should be -- the first. But that hardly means his compass is stuck on E and W.
Just check the speedometer.
"When Geno's skating the way he is now, you just want to work to keep up," Carl Hagelin was telling me after the Penguins outraced the Maple Leafs, 5-3, Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena. "And he's skating. Wow. Get that man some new blades, you know?"
That's Hagelin, mind you. Maybe the world's fastest human on any blades.
But that's also how peak-form Malkin looks, even to two outrageously fast linemates in Hagelin and Bryan Rust. Yeah, he's got the 6-foot-3 frame, he's got enough skill to have at least been considered for the NHL's all-time top 100 player list -- sorry, that never stops being obscenely offensive -- but he's also got world-class speed when he revs it up.
And man alive, is that engine ablaze right now.
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