‘More motivated’ Evgeni Malkin ‘dominant’ this season for Penguins
With 16 games remaining in the season and having missed 14 contests because of injury, Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin has matched his totals from 2018-19 in goals and surpassed them in even-strength points.
His plus/minus is a whopping plus-34 better than last season, and his shooting percentage, average ice time and takeaways also are all up.
When it comes to puck possession measured by even-strength shot attempts, Malkin is miles ahead of where he was last season.
“You can see he’s that much more motivated this year,” linemate Bryan Rust said. “This year I think he came out to prove a lot of people wrong. I don’t think he was happy with how last year went. He came out with something to prove, and he’s been awesome all year.”
The 33-year-old has six points over the Penguins’ past two games, both victories. He has 21 goals, 48 assists, 47 even-strength points and 65 takeaways with a 13.1 shooting percentage this season. Malkin is averaging 18 minutes, 29 seconds of ice time, his most in six years, and the Penguins are attempting 54.4% of the 5-on-5 shots while he is on the ice, 4.6% more than when he is not.
”His whole overall game, I think, is just much better (than last year),” coach Mike Sullivan said. “Offensively, he’s been dominant. He’s a threat every time he steps on the ice.
“But I think the biggest improvement I’ve seen in Geno’s game is his decisions with the puck. He’s not playing that high-risk of a game, and he’s playing with a commitment to playing defense when he doesn’t have the puck. He’s working extremely hard at it. But he’s been a dominant player with the puck all year.”
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.