Evgeni Malkin isn't optional.
If the Penguins illustrated one point above all in falling short to the Flames, 5-4, Saturday at PPG Paints Arena, it's that they're one thing with Malkin at his peak, and that they're just another team when he's just another player.
Because when he's wasting everyone's time by committing three giveaways in the first period ...
... or passing up chance after chance after chance to shoot, or not coming back nearly deep enough on defense, then the Penguins are exactly the kind of team that would fall behind the Western Conference leader by three goals.
But when he's gripping and ripping, like he did in the third ...
... then the Penguins will dominate. Anyone.
Ask the Flames themselves.
"When those guys, Crosby and Malkin and everyone they've got, when they crank it up, they're hard to stop," Sean Monahan, Calgary's first-line center, would say afterward. "I mean, those are great players."
Both of them were that in this game. Both had three points, both registered five shots and, in Sidney Crosby's case, was dominant from the drop of the puck. But the latter's so common it's almost to be taken for granted. Malkin's contributions have fluctuated from month to month, week to week, even shift to shift.
That's got to change. And soon, given that the Penguins' 30-21-7 record just plopped them down to ninth and out of the East's final playoff spot, courtesy of the Hurricanes taking care of the Stars, 3-0, in Raleigh later in the evening.
Let me word it more clearly: Getting Malkin going must become priority No. 1.
And I don't just mean on the power play, which is how both of the above goals were scored. I'm talking five-on-five, where Malkin's still stuck on eight whole goals for the entire season. In this game, the Malkin line, with Phil Kessel and Nick Bjugstad, was a disaster at even-strength, on the ice for seven high-danger chances for Calgary to zero -- as in Z-E-R-O -- for Pittsburgh. Malkin and Kessel were nowhere to be found without possession, and Bjugstad was a headless chicken trying to compensate.
I could slog through more numbers or just replay the Zone Entry From Hell:
Part of this blame belongs to Jim Rutherford for trading Carl Hagelin, a fine five-on-five fit for Malkin -- straight-ahead speed, creating turnovers for the late-arriving Malkin -- and trust me when I tell you Hagelin's still missed more than any of them let on publicly. On the day Tanner Pearson was a healthy scratch, maybe it's an appropriate time to remind.
Part of the burden to address this is on Mike Sullivan and his staff.
While it's terrific that Crosby's got Grade A compatibility in Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust, and it's probably for the best to keep both Malkin and Kessel together and happy, forcing Bjugstad onto that line made no sense. And I dare say the motive was to get Bjugstad going, now that he's gone through eight games with a single goal.
Bjugstad isn't that important.
Scoring depth through three or four lines isn't that important.
Malkin scoring is important. No, imperative.
If Malkin were the priority, he'd be out there with Kessel and Rust, a line that had been clicking before Malkin's recent injury and suspension. And Patric Hornqvist, who hasn't scored in a dozen games, would be back with Crosby, where Sullivan prefers him, anyway. And there would be two lines stacked offensively, two others to balance it out with all the requisite grit. But the undying dream of HBK II trumps all, unfortunately, and it's the second line that usually suffers for it.
Which isn't to excuse Malkin. Not in the slightest.
Because nothing has hurt him more all season long than his own maddening reluctance to shoot the puck — aside the injury and the one-game NHL suspension he just served, the main factor in his slump has been his reluctance to shoot. He's registered 133 shots in 57 games this season, a career-low average of 2.61 per game, to score his 16 goals. Last season, he averaged 3.06 shots per game and scored 42 goals. In 2011-12, when he won the Hart Trophy, he averaged 4.52 shots and scored 50.
This isn't a mystery. Not to him, either. He and I have been talking about this all winter. He never wonders, never wavers. He fully grasps that, if he shoots more, he'll score more. Just as he grasps that, if he scores more, he'll find all that moxie that's been missing.
"Yeah, I mean, like, long time I'm not score," Malkin would say after this one in his gloriously inimitable English. "Hopefully, these two goals will give me confidence. Tomorrow, I'll feel so much better. I'm glad to be back with the team. I was frustrated in the second period. I lost a couple pucks. It's fine. I'll do my best. I hope tomorrow we win."
Sunday, he means, against the Rangers.
All concerned would do well to maintain any momentum that might have been built on this front.
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