Penguins routed by Flyers in forward Evgeni Malkin's return

The Penguins welcomed forward Evgeni Malkin back to their lineup for a road contest against the hated Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Monday.

Activated from long-term injured reserve, Malkin played his first game since suffering a suspected right knee injury March 16.

For anyone with a rooting interest in the Penguins, it was a cause for celebration.

It was also largely the only thing worth celebrating Monday.

Despite the presence of Malkin, the Penguins were routed, 7-2, by a Flyers team that had been eliminated from postseason contention Thursday.

To make matters worse, backup Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith, who got the start and served as little more than target practice behind a porous defense, was pulled after two periods due to an undisclosed injury, according to coach Mike Sullivan. He finished with 33 saves on 37 shots and recorded a loss.

“We just gave up way too much,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said via video conference. “Our start was bad in the first period. We got lured into a chance-for-chance game with them. We know we’ve got to be better than that.”

The Flyers blitzed the Penguins with three goals in the first period by forward Kevin Hayes (his 12th at the 5:58 mark), defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere (his ninth on a power play at 14:08) and forward Claude Giroux (his 15th at 15:12).

The hole got deeper at 7:50 of the second period. Off a bad line change in which Malkin and linemate Kasperi Kapanen were slow in getting to the bench – which is at the far end of the ice during the middle period – a stretch pass by Gostisbehere allowed forward Scott Laughton to set up rookie forward Wade Allison for his second career goal.

Tristan Jarry replaced DeSmith to open the third period and the Penguins seemed to garner some temporary momentum by that change starting with a power-play goal 2:30 into the final frame.

Malkin, who replaced forward Jared McCann on the top power-play unit, fed the puck from the high slot to defenseman Kris Letang above the left circle. From there, Letang dished a hard pass to the right of the cage, where forward Sidney Crosby tapped a brilliant deflection over goaltender Alex Lyon’s left shoulder on the near side for his 21st goal.

That assist was the lone bright spot for Malkin, who logged 14:07 of ice time on 23 shifts and recorded three shots on four attempts. He was also 6 for 17 (35%) on draws.

“It’s always tough getting back into it after that long of a time off,” said Malkin’s linemate, Jason Zucker. “He didn’t seem like he missed any time. He was making great plays. He was heads up with the puck as he always is.”

Zucker made a heads-up play with the puck on a deflection for a power-play goal, his eighth of the season, at 8:24 of the third period to make it a 4-2 contest.

Any notion of a comeback was strangled out of existence by the Flyers, who blasted the Penguins with three unanswered goals to cap the scoring. Forward Joel Farrabee (his 17th at 11:37 of the third), Giroux (on an empty net at 17:39) and defenseman Robert Hagg (his second at 18:55) all padded their statistics by taking advantage of a terrible defensive effort by the Penguins.

“I just don’t think we were on our game,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think we were skating. I don’t think we were playing the game that we’ve played here for a long time that’s brought us success. When we’re at our best, I think we’re a team that plays on its toes. There’s an element of simplicity associated with our game that gives us a chance to be successful and makes us hard to play against.

“I just didn’t think we were on our game tonight.”