It was a little of the best of Evgeni Malkin. He had two assists — the second a tremendous pass — in what amounted to a season-sustaining 4-2 win for the Penguins on Sunday night against the Philadelphia Flyers. That gave him 80 points for the season, a number he has hit six times during his Hall of Fame-caliber career.
It also was a lot of the worst of Malkin. He took not one, not two, not three, but four minor penalties. He topped off the fourth — for unsportsmanlike conduct — early in the third period with a 10-minute misconduct and then a 10-minute game misconduct for, presumably, yelling obscenities in English or Russian or maybe both at referee Chris Schlenker with increasing fury. Malkin is not the Penguins' all-time leader in penalty minutes for nothing. You can add 28 minutes to his career number.
Mike Sullivan loves the good Malkin. He has talked about him frequently, with complete justification, as being "a generational talent." Malkin showed his elite ability on his second assist, faking a shot before setting up Rickard Rakell for the goal that gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead. Malkin has just two goals in his past 18 games, but his playmaking has been brilliant, with 16 assists in those games. He has 80 points in 77 games this season, a nice 1.04 points-per-game average that is especially impressive for a player, 36, with plenty of wear and tear on his body.
