Penguins notes: Evgeni Malkin 'trending the right way;' Juuso Riikola practices fully
Is Evgeni Malkin — finally — emerging from his season-long slump? His coach saw signs of that during Tuesday’s Pittsburgh Penguins victory.
“I do think his game is trending in the right way,” Mike Sullivan said Wednesday.
Sullivan cited, in particular, Malkin’s work during the first period of Tuesday’s 3-2 shootout win at the Washington Capitals. Malkin had a power-play goal less than 7 minutes in to extend his point streak to three games (four points).
Malkin also has four or more shots on goal in three of his past four games.
Relatively modest totals, to be sure, for a two-time NHL scoring champion. But after beginning the season with a mere three points through eight games and one goal through 10 games, Malkin has at least a point in seven of his past nine outings.
“I thought his first period (Tuesday) was a really good period for him,” Sullivan said. “He had the puck an awful lot, and he was a threat every time he went over the boards. So we’re just trying to work with Geno to try to (work out the kinks) in some of the areas of his game where sometimes he can be a little bit high-risk and just making better decisions in certain areas of the rink.
“We certainly don’t want to take the stick out of his hands because he’s a unique player in that circumstance so we want to allow him to act on his instincts and do what he does best. He’s just got to do it in a calculated fashion. We’re trying to work with him in that regard.”
PK is OK
The Penguins killed off two Washington power plays Tuesday — no small feat considering the Capitals entered the game with an otherworldly 50% conversion rate on the power play in home games this season.
“We’ve done a lot of work on PK lately,” defenseman Cody Ceci said. “It didn’t start out the way we wanted it to, so we’ve been focusing on that and it’s starting to pay off for us.”
The Penguins have killed 12 of the past 13 opponent power plays over the past four-plus games after beginning the season allowing a 30.7% conversion rate on their first 39 kills.
Injury report
Sullivan said defenseman Juuso Riikola practiced in a full capacity and is expected to be cleared to play very soon. Also, defenseman Brian Dumoulin (lower-body) and forward Evan Rodrigues (lower-body) skated back in Pittsburgh with Penguins skills coach Ty Hennes.
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.
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