Bleacher Report - Evgeni Malkin

ATTENTION NHL: Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin Are Hitting Full Stride

Sergey Zikov — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:47:26 -0500

Take it to headquarters - "Air Raid, Mellon Arena."

This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. We need your undivided attention.

For the first six weeks of the season, the names Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have gone missing at the top of the NHL's point leaders, for various reasons. Crosby's wingers have been disappointing to say the least, with Chris Kunitz on the Injured Reserve and Bill Guerin only bothering to show up to the rink once every fortnight.

As for Malkin, he's been on the shelf himself, having missed a couple weeks with a bruised shoulder.

A rather shocking occurrence, as it's been some time since one of those two names hasn't been at the top of the scoring race for the Art Ross Trophy. But honestly, you didn't expect Nos. 71 and 87 to give up their chase for the scoring crown that easily did you?

On Saturday night, there was a full-fledged air raid at the old Mellon Arena, triggered by Captain Crosby's performance. The Penguins' marketing team couldn't have done a better job choosing the game with the New York Rangers to be "Hat Night", and no sooner were the hats passed out, they rained back down to the ice.

Crosby and Malkin are hitting full stride, as the Rangers found out the hard way in an 8-3 annihilation.

Crosby completed his fourth career hat trick, second of the season, and finished the night with five points after dishing out primary assists on Malkin and Max Talbot goals. Malkin, who put up less gaudy numbers, still finished with a goal and an assist. Both of the points came even-strength with Crosby.

For the record, the point explosion has Crosby vaulted right into the mix of the scoring race with 30 points, good enough for sixth place. Malkin has points in six straight games and 11 total in eight since his return to the lineup on Nov. 14.

But it's not how the point totals, it's how and when the two-headed monster are producing.

Sidney Crosby has his limitations as a goal scorer. He knows that and is completely fine with that fact. Most of his goals will come from around the net mouth, off deflections or rebounds. Many players would call these "garbage" goals, but a goal is a goal no matter how it finds it's way to the net.

However, he can not score from anywhere on the ice, like an Alexander Ovechkin may be able to do.

But, as the constant professional that he is, he is always looking for ways to improve his game. With the assistance of Sergei Gonchar, who happens to have a darn effective slapshot himself, Crosby has worked diligently to improve his slapper. While he has yet to score with the shot, he has made opponents respect it, dropping back on the power play to block it.

This has opened up what seems like acres of space on the ice for him.

In the last couple games alone, he has scored three times from range with an accurate snap shot, none more apparent than his hat trick goal. Taking a pass from newly returned defenseman Alex Goligoski , Crosby wound up for a slap shot, freezing a Ranger defender in his steps to give himself the extra time and space to measure up his dart of a wrist shot.

And that's not even mentioning his play on Malkin's goal. Working with his bread and butter behind the cage, he outmuscled Matt Gilroy, relieved him of the puck and flicked it out for No. 71 to poke home.

He may not be the most complete goal scorer, but the NHL's most complete player is still adding new pieces to his game.

As for Evgeni Malkin, many speculated that he may not be at 100 percent even after coming off the injury. Which in reality, isn't a fair thing to say.

Since returning, Malkin's stat line looks like such: 4 goals, 7 assists, +8 rating, 32 shots on goal. Does that sound like a slump? Just because Malkin has not utterly dominated a game like he did in the Eastern Conference Finals, doesn't mean he is in a slump or less than 100 percent.

He's got 11 points since returning and only two of those have come on the power play. In each of his first three NHL seasons, Malkin has registered 40, 40 and 41 points on the man advantage, a mark he is well short of matching on his current pace.

However, the Penguins power play looked 40 times more dangerous on Saturday night with a full compliment of players on the ice.

Not only did the unit score twice against the Rangers, it would have scored four or five had it not been for the solid early play of Steve Valiquette .

Malkin will no doubt be leading the power play into December, as his role has improved. Earlier in the season, he would be stationed on the right half wall, with the option to shoot or pass. Now, he has been moving all over the ice, from down low, to the point, to flying across the middle. Opposing penalty killers have no idea where he's going next.

They say knowledge is power. Lack of knowledge is a major disadvantage in hockey.

For good or better, the two-headed monster of Crosby and Malkin is starting to click on all cylinders. Don't blink, or they might just be leading the league in scoring once again.

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Is Mike Rupp the Missing Piece on the Pittsburgh Penguins' Power Play?

Sergey Zikov — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:40:26 -0500

"...Gonchar lugs the puck out of the Penguins' end, tries to run the gauntlet through center ice. He dumps the puck in around the wall for Sidney Crosby, Crosby to Malkin. Malkin works his way up the half wall, back to Gonchar. Sergei Gonchar steps in, fires wide.

"Crosby gathers the rebound behind the cage, under pressure and he's hit hard from behind, but makes the play to Billy Guerin. Guerin, wheels to the outside and back up to Eaton. Eaton to Gonchar, back to Eaton, they play catch at the blue line. Oh, and he's stripped of the puck and the Penguins have to retreat.

"Gonchar back to retrieve the puck from Fleury, passes up to Malkin. Malkin dances through a pair of defenders, passes to Crosby in the corner. Crosby, back to Malkin. Malkin fires! Rebound, oh and nobody's there to put it home, and the penalty expires..."

While the previous call is fictitious in nature, Penguin fans can hear Paul Steigerwald making the very calls all too well.

If you haven't guessed already, it depicts a standard Penguin power play, a man advantage that has nearly become a man-disadvantage.

Earlier in the season, the Penguins went eight straight games without a power play goal (0-for-29 in that time, just for the record) and quite often handed opponents momentum after a failed five-on-four.

However, since power play quarterback Sergei Gonchar has returned to the lineup, the unit has improved dramatically and the results on the scoreboard have shown it.

Just kidding.

Even with Gonchar back in the lineup, the Penguins' power play has looked fantastic on paper without producing a whole lot on the ice. Imagine a baseball player coming to bat with a croquet mallet or someone trying to bowl with a tennis ball. The swing or stroke might look phenomenal, but the results would be horrific.

Why? Because something isn't right with that picture.

The same is true with the Penguin man advantage. While the unit does boast Gonchar and the two superstars in Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, they are firing blanks because there is a missing piece.

That's Mike Rupp.

When General Manager Ray Shero acquired Rupp from the New Jersey Devils during the off-season, most fans believed they added a tough, gritty, defensive forward that could fit right in on a fourth line.

Rupp has certainly lived up to all of those expectations, as he boasts four fighting majors and places fourth on the team in hits.

But he also has proved to be much more than just a fourth liner in Dan Bylsma's up-tempo forechecking game.

He's already tallied five goals on the season in 23 games, one short of his career high. It's a pretty safe bet to say that he'll not only pass his best mark of six, but eradicate that figure as well.

As you would imagine for a man with his gargantuan size (6-feet-5, 235 pounds), all of those goals have come within five feet of the cage. After all, isn't the objective always to "get to the net"?

Almost as a joke, Bylsma inserted fellow enforcer Eric Godard on the second power play unit in a 6-1 washout victory over the Montreal Canadiens. It was all fun and games, except for one small thing - it actually made sense.

With Godard in front of the cage, the second power play looked more dangerous in a minute of ice time than it had at any previous point in the season.

Although they did not produce a goal, Godard had a great chance off a juicy rebound and you'd almost have to believe that if a guy with a better goal-scoring pedigree was in his place, that puck would be having a tea party in the back of the net.

Cough. Cough.

I don't want to mention any names, but give me Mike Rupp for $500, please.

Just going back to last night's win over the Florida Panthers, the Penguins tied the game late. Why? Because Rupp pitched a tent, rolled out the sleeping bags and started up the grill in front of Panthers' netminder Tomas Vokoun.

His presence in front of the net allowed Malkin the time and space to make a play behind the net that eventually led to the goal.

Let me rip a page from the Detroit Red Wings' playbook for a second. For the past several years, Detroit's power play with Tomas Holmstrom wreaking havoc in front of the cage has been one of the best in the NHL, with an impossible 25.5 percent efficiency mark last season.

What does it do, apart from driving defensemen out of their minds? It draws their attention away from the more skilled players, examples Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

With more time and space, they can move around without being harassed constantly. Meanwhile, Holmstrom provides a screen, deflection, or rebound vacuum in front of the net.

But make no mistake. Mike Rupp is not Holmstrom. He doesn't need to be.

With Rupp's size and goal scoring ability from close range (yes, I never thought I'd be making that statement, either), he would be able to draw at least one defender to him at all times, allowing the Penguins to get away from the dreaded box penalty killing formation that they see so often.

He is certainly not half the shooter that Bill Guerin is, nor does he have the energy of Chris Kunitz. But his ability to draw defenders away from Crosby and Malkin just by sitting in front of the net might be a priceless asset to the first power play unit.

Will it work? Who knows for sure.

But one thing is for sure. We'll never know if Bylsma doesn't try it. How much worse can a powerplay operating at 14 percent get anyway?

Maybe FSN color commentator Bob Errey can help with some insight on Rupp's skill - "Those aren't the hands of a fourth-liner, those are the hands of a 50-goal scorer!"

Sounds good to me; let's give it a shot.

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