The Joy of "Geno": Evgeni Malkin Making Strong Case for NHL MVP

There are many aspects of the 2008-'09 season that have gone wrong for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

With 29 games to play, the defending Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference champions are 25-23-5 and are currently one point short of the East's final playoff spot. 

Simply seeing those results, especially after a 15-6-4 start, is enough to know the Penguins' plans for a third-consecutive 100-point season have gone seriously askew.

But despite all the obvious negatives, one young man has delivered consistent production and shown accelerated growth throughout this up-and-down campaign. One person has established himself on the National Hockey League's Mount Rushmore of super-elite competitors.

And no, it hasn't been Sidney Crosby.

Nothing against the captain, who is plugging through another superlative statistical season despite playing through a persistent knee injury and perhaps general fatigue, but Evgeni Malkin has made a significant leap in his third NHL season, and his transformation is evident both on and off the ice.

A quick look at the numbers reveals the upgrades Malkin has made in his game. It's no secret anymore in any corner of the league that "Geno" has a death grip on the scoring race—his 24 goals and 55 assists outpace the more celebrated Crosby and Alex Ovechkin by 10 and 12 points, respectively.

Additionally, the onetime streaky 22-year-old has spread his output around without spreading it too thin: he has made an appearance on the scoresheet in 42 of Pittsburgh's 53 games.

Also, after playing in every regular season and playoff contest last year, Malkin has yet to miss a game this year, thus pouring a generous amount of durability atop his lengthy point streaks.

For those who have observed the man from Magnitogorsk since his explosive arrival on the NHL scene in the fall of 2006, it goes without saying that Malkin backchecks with just as much energy as he expends in the offensive zone.

His +17 rating on a club that's given up one more goal than it's scored on the season might be the most striking figure on his stats page.

But despite all these gaudy numbers, probably the best argument for the rise of Evgeni is the third period Wednesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Sure, he was good throughout the contest, including his crumpling of Bolts blueliner Andrei Meszaros with a brutal shoulder check in the second frame, but the newly-appointed alternate captain validated the "A" on his chest with a breathtaking late-game performance.

With the Penguins trailing Tampa three-nil early in the third, Malkin picked off an opposition clearing attempt at the blue line, fed Pascal Dupuis for a glorious one-timer, then banged home the rebound off the crossbar to give the home team life.

Later, after 15 minutes of dominant puck possession, frightening physicality, and superlative on-ice awareness, "Geno" received the puck from teammate Crosby along the goal line during a power play and jammed it into the crease.

The resulting goalmouth scramble yielded the tying score off the stick of Petr Sykora, and ultimately set up Malkin's thrilling final act in overtime.

By the time Jordan Staal stole the puck from Tampa's Cory Murphy and fed it to a charging Malkin in the low slot for the game winner, the Mellon Arena crowd had witnessed one of the greatest individual performances in franchise history.

Yep, it turns out Versus analyst Darren Eliot said it best after Malkin burned New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur for a spectacular goal in October '06: "Shades of Mario." Surely Lemieux himself would agree after observing from his owner's box last night.

Make no mistake, the Penguins are going to need more than Malkin Magic to get another kick at the postseason can.

But with reports that the publicly reticent superstar was very vocal in the locker room before Wednesday's third period, maybe the irrepressible Russian is quickly developing into the kind of leader than can inspire with words, not just extraordinary deeds.

Considering Malkin's English is still quite rudimentary and broken, one can assume that the emotion in his voice will be much more important than his diction, at least in the near future.

Suddenly, the idea that the quietly intense Crosby may be in line to play Gretzky to Malkin's more exuberant Messier starts to make a lot of sense.

Forget the historical implications of the Penguins' stellar duo, though. For now, let the suddenly loquacious Malkin speak his mind after carrying the team to a 4-3 victory: "We need playoffs."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

And if Pittsburgh does indeed "get playoffs," Malkin gets my vote for MVP.