Each Saturday during the ongoing apocalypse, I’ll revisit an older column that ran on this site, accompanied by a handful of current observations about it at the bottom.
This one ran March 13, 2017:
CALGARY, Alberta -- Hockey is the world's fastest team sport and, within that prism, players are required to process information at a rate that rivals the action.
Which is to say, in the first period of the Penguins' 4-3 shootout loss to the Flames on this Monday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Evgeni Malkin achieved this in a sizzling span of 1.8 seconds:
Drove authoritatively through the slot. Angled his body to confuse both of Calgary's defensemen. Flipped his stick toward the backhand. Redirected Chris Kunitz's pinpoint return feed for a fine power-play goal.
That's the norm, of course, especially of late. He's been ablaze, with seven goals in five games.
But then, in the second period, he did this:
And that's so very much not the norm. Nor should anyone, notably Malkin himself, ever hope it becomes the norm.
The amount of thought involved in this particular process?
I first asked the head coach, in a quieter moment after his group interview, how he felt about one of his superstars putting his head in the line of the bullet. And Mike Sullivan, as ever, went above and beyond with the response.
"It was brave," he began. "Obviously, that's not our expectation of Geno. But I give him tons of credit. We were vulnerable there. And I think he knew it."
The score was 2-2, and that was Micheal Ferland, a fair-shooting forward, lining up in the high slot, uncovered, with traffic aplenty near Marc-Andre Fleury. That's pretty vulnerable.
"He took one for the team," Sullivan continued. "Geno's ... such a dynamic player, such an instinctive player, and he sees the game at a different level. There are things that we talk about related to Geno. He'll occasionally force plays that aren't there. He'll take risks. We talk with him about those all the time, because we want him to know we don't expect him to be perfect. But I look at this team, and I've said this since Day 1 that I took over, we'd be foolish to take the sticks out of the hands of great players. Because it's their ability to make great plays at the right moments ... it's what separates them from the others."
I asked the captain, who's dropped to block a time or two himself.
"It just shows you what Geno's all about," Sidney Crosby replied. "That's not something you want to see all the time, but it shows you how much he wants to win."
I asked the beneficiary, the one with the best view:
And though it took an extra-long wait because of treatment on that right shoulder that got rammed, I eventually asked Malkin about his decision, too.
His answer blew me away.
"I think about it," he told me, way too casually given the actual time involved. "And I think about Chicago. Do you remember that game?"
Sure did. It was March 1 at the United Center. Classic game. Super-fast, too. The Blackhawks prevailed, 4-1, after a ... oh, wait.
This was the tiebreaker late in the second period:
That was Chicago's Richard Panik, undressing Malkin on his way to the winner. And yeah, that's one that'll sting in a way that a shot-blocking bruise never could.
I was getting this now.
"Same play. Same place," Malkin kept going. "The shooter was in the same place. I was in the same place. Tie game. Good team. I'm not going to let that again happen like that."
It's a lot to process. And at the same time, it really isn't.
In this moment, at this pace, with this passion, Malkin's nothing less than the greatest player in the world. He dictates in a way no one else, not even Crosby, can. He sets the tone. He does it all, even dropping the gloves to honor one of hockey's more antiquated but surviving codes, as he did to open this very trip over in Winnipeg.
And there's never a variable in the mix when he's this way. He's lost Patric Hornqvist and Bryan Rust as linemates. He's skating now with Phil Kessel, who hasn't scored in a dozen games and who's misfiring with his passes, too. And still, Malkin's got 11 goals in 14 games since returning from injury. He's got seven assists in that span, too, and he's climbed within three points of the NHL's scoring lead, even though the leader, Connor McDavid, has played seven additional games.
"What Geno's doing right now," Ian Cole told me after this game, "I don't even have words. I don't have words for it anymore."
Maybe he does. And I'd love to hear them all, unfiltered.
Because if Panik's goal in Chicago can fuel him to take an action like the one in this game, and if his general under-performing late last season and even parts of the Stanley Cup run motivated him to condition his body in an unprecedented way last summer, then I can't help but wonder what's doing it this time.
Some athletes feed off calm. Others feed off a fire. There's never been a question that the latter is Malkin's pump.
Being left off that Top 100 list?
Seeing Crosby, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis and all the other Pittsburgh selections posing for group pictures at the Los Angeles gala, all those other lesser players being listed ahead of him?
Knowing he'd never again have a chance to partake in a moment like that?
Feeling as left out, as insulted, as maybe any point in his hockey life?
I'm guessing yes, but he wouldn't go anywhere near that far.
"I'm playing my game," was all he'd say when I broached bigger motivation. "This is my game."
With that, Sullivan strode behind us, bumped Malkin on the back and playfully barked, "Let's go, Geno! Need you on the PK in Philly!"
____________________
As promised, a few remarks:
• It's imperative to note that Malkin did, in fact, finish that trip in Philadelphia. But he then was out for three weeks until Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The cause was the shoulder, which was hurt much more from that blocked shot than originally thought.
• If he's gone down for another block like that -- putting his upper body in harm's way -- I can't recall it. Which is good.
• Also good: Malkin went on to rediscover the peak form described above in those playoffs, producing 10 goals and 18 assists on the way to winning the third Cup of his career.
• It's not often I'm as surprised by a response as I was by Malkin's recollection of the Chicago whiff. Never saw that coming. Not even close. And even when he cited it, in all candor, it took me a couple of long seconds to be certain of the sequence he was referencing. But then, hey, that's why we ask questions, and they give answers.
• Malkin's among the most honest athletes I've covered. Think of what went into saying what he did to me, knowing full well I'd dig that footage back up.
• In putting this series together for you, if any pattern's emerging, it's that I'm revisiting columns in which the access to the subject matter was critical.
I hinted at it up there, but I waited quite a while for Malkin afterward down in the Saddledome corridors. He was the last one out of the room, partly because of the treatment needed. And by the time he emerged, as illustrated above, he really had to get to the team bus. So we did a walk-and-talk, as I tried to get from him whatever might've been on his mind.
Access is everything. It'll be missed, believe me.
• If all you get from game coverage is stuff you already saw or knew, then you haven't gotten game coverage at the level we expect of ourselves here.
• Hockey's missed, too. I want it back. It's been fun to see these photos and video clips coming out of Cranberry, but it hardly feels real.
Soon enough, I guess.
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