In America, the Russian star was harshly criticized – Malkin finally answered. Rested and beautifully interrupted a scoring drought – NHL News – Hockey – 02/07/2021

I’m not happy with my game. But you have to come to the rink and work, work, work. It’s hard to say about my game now something good, but I hope everything is ahead. I believe in you. It is clear that this is an unusual season. Plainly without training camps, without spectators, and this affects readiness and mood, but we are all on equal terms. My goal is to help the team win, and I understand that while I’m not in the best shape, it’s harder to do it. I need to find myself, my game, and I believe that it will work out.

Evgeny Malkin

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In the last days of January, Yevgeny Malkin very objectively assessed the start of the National Hockey League season in his performance.

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For the first 10 matches Russian forward of Pittsburgh scored only 1 goal, finished 4 meetings with a negative indicator of usefulness, constantly received harsh criticism from the club’s fans and generally looked a little like himself. And then there is the departure from his post of general manager Jim Rutherford, who was considered the main defender of the Russian in the Penguins system, and the increasing talk after his resignation about a possible exchange of Gino. In general, the first month of the regular season for the 71st issue did not work out. You can be sure that the pause of several days that Pence had in early February due to coronavirus problems “New Jersey”, the Russian star was pleased – there was an opportunity to reboot.

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In the first after mini vacations Malkin’s team had to play against the most motivated opponent – the Islanders lost 5 matches in a row and were going to interrupt this unpleasant streak by all means. In the first period, they made a couple of steps towards this goal – both times Jonathan Eberle tried. First, the Canadian flew past Cody Cecy and successfully threw from an uncomfortable hand, and then fought well on a nickle and took the finishing move.

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“Pittsburgh” was able to answer Eberle with only one puck, and in the performance of a man from whom no scoring feats especially something were waiting. 21 year old defender Pierre-Olivier Joseph spends his first season in the league, before that he did not differ in scoring, but on Saturday night everything worked out. The young defender launched the attack himself, received a reverse skid from Jake Güntzel and fired a gorgeous shot past Semyon Varlamov. For the Russian goalkeeper, this was the 500th game in the NHL, but he could not stop the newcomer.

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And what about Malkin? Until the end of the second period, it seemed that the spontaneous break in the championship for the Penguins did not help their leader.

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Evgeny looked (as usual for this season) inert – what can I say, that he spent more than 35 minutes of playing time without shots on target. It seemed that we were waiting for another disastrous match in his performance and another portion of the hate from the fans, but everything changed overnight. The Russian forward did not use his first scoring chance – he hit Varlamov’s shields, but he coped with the second attempt. The Islanders fired with the exit from the zone, Kasperi Kapanen brought Malkin to an ideal position and he nicely dealt with compatriot goalkeeper. There is the first goal in 7 matches and more than 2 weeks!

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Malkin’s goal also inspired Pittsburgh’s second superstar. At the beginning of the third period, Sidney Crosby transformed an episode that was not the most obvious for scoring achievements into an abandoned puck – everyone was expecting a discount on the blue line from him, and at that moment Sid found Gunzel with a completely not obvious transfer, who brought the Penguins ahead for the first time in the match. True, not for long. In just 5 minutes Letang and Joseph for some reason rushed together at Casey Sizik, who cut them off with one pass. Cal Clutterbuck did not miss from close range and hinted that the teams would not mind going into overtime.

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Against such a scenario was Pittsburgh’s Latvian defender Theodors Blugers. He threw the puck out of bounds, organized New York’s first-ever majority and watched from the bench as Anders Lee buried his team.

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The Penguins lost for the fourth time in five matches – Malkin’s goal was hardly a serious consolation for them.

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