Evgeni Malkin on Tuesday night scored and picked up an assist in his return from a lower-body injury, while Sidney Crosby got his 999th career point with an assist as the Pittsburgh Penguins rolled by the Vancouver Canucks 4-0.
The quality Mike Sullivan appreciates the most in Malkin is the one that separates the Pittsburgh Penguins star from just about everyone else who happens to do what Malkin does for a living.
“He’s such a threat when he’s on the ice,” Sullivan said. “He’s one of the elite players in the league that has the ability to change the outcome.”
And do it with style. Malkin celebrated his return from injury with his 23rd goal of the season, then added a beautiful feed that set up Phil Kessel’s third-period goal.
Crosby earned the 999th point of his career with an assist on Jake Guentzel’s goal and Matt Cullen added his ninth of the season for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Matt Murray stopped 29 shots for his third shutout of the season as the Penguins remained unbeaten in regulation since the All-Star break (5-0-2).
Malkin missed seven games while recovering from an injury sustained during a victory over St Louis on Jan. 24. He appeared ready to return on Saturday last week in Arizona before Sullivan made Malkin a late scratch just to be sure.
Given another couple of days to rest, Malkin picked up right where he left off before getting hurt. He gave Pittsburgh the lead 5 minutes, 51 seconds into the second when he stood on the far post, stopped a pass from Olli Maatta with his right skate and tapped it into the net.
“I tried to score with my stick, because sometimes [if it’s] off your skates, the coach makes a challenge,” Malkin said. “I know the puck was coming.”
Vancouver’s defense could not say the same when Malkin and Kessel broke in on Ryan Miller late in the third. Racing down the right wing, Malkin dangled the puck on his stick and waited while defenseman Luca Sbisa slid harmlessly out of the way before slipping it Kessel, who buried it into the open net to make it 3-0.
“The first time we went two-on-one, I tried to pass to him and he tried to pass it back and it didn’t work,” Malkin said. “Now I passed to him and he shoot. It’s more fun.”
Miller made 38 saves while under siege for most of the night, particularly in the third as Pittsburgh pulled away.
“We knew what game we had to play,” Miller said. “You saw what happened when we got away from it in the third. We started stretching things out and leaving good ice. It didn’t turn out so well.”
Despite a series of injuries, the defending Stanley Cup champions have managed to keep pace in the supremely tight Metropolitan Division, where Pittsburgh, Columbus and the New York Rangers are separated by only two points as they try to keep first-place Washington in striking distance.
Murray was spectacular at times. He snagged Jack Skille’s wrist shot on a breakaway out of midair late in the second and stoned Skille again when he skated in all alone early in the third.
By then, the Penguins were firmly in control after Crosby set up Guentzel’s sixth of the season. The Penguins captain came in having gone scoreless in consecutive games for the first time in nearly a year.
The drought was on its way to stretching to three games heading into the third, but Crosby nudged closer to becoming the 86th NHL player with 1,000 points when he completed a give-and-go by feeding a streaking Guentzel down the slot 2 minutes, 27 seconds into the third.
“It’s pretty easy when you’re playing with the best player,” said Guentzel, a rookie who has six goals in 18 games.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was