Evgeni Malkin sidelined a month with lower body injury for Penguins
By Mary Clarke
The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without star center Evgeni Malkin “long term” after the forward was injured Saturday.
Update 5:00 p.m. ET: TSN hockey insider Darren Dreger confirmed that Malkin’s injury will leave him out of the lineup for at least a month with a soft-tissue injury in his leg. Original story as follows.
Pittsburgh Penguins‘ center Evgeni Malkin will be out “long term” with a lower-body injury, the team announced on Monday. Penguins’ head coach Mike Sullivan delivered the news to reporters that the 33-year-old center would miss what seems to be significant time with the team after sustaining an injury Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Joining Malkin on the injured list will be Nick Bjugstad, a 27-year-old forward who was also injured in a separate incident on Saturday for the Penguins.
Malkin’s injury will not be a season ending one, though he will be missing more time for the Penguins than Bjugstad. No more about the injury is known other than what was seen on the ice in the Penguins’ second game of the season.
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During the second period of Saturday’s game against the Blue Jackets, Malkin slid and fell into the half boards near the Penguins’ bench awkwardly after colliding with teammate Kris Letang. Blue Jackets’ defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov collided into Malkin as play was taking place, though it is hard to say if that hit or Malkin’s awkward impact with Letang that is the cause of injury.
Malkin did not return to the ice after the injury, but was seen standing by the ice during practice with a stick in his hand on Monday. The Penguins did not announce Malkin to the Long-Term Injured Reserve list, though the option would be there for them to give themselves some cap relief should he be out for long enough.
The loss of Malkin for any time is a huge blow to the Penguins offense, which has been held together by the forward and captain Sidney Crosby for years. The unknown timeframe of Malkin’s injury, other than it being a “long-term” but not a season ending injury, casts shadows over Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes this season.
While the season is still early, the Penguins losing a player that scored 21 goals and 72 total points for them a year prior is a major blow that will be hard to swallow if other players in the lineup don’t step up before his return. The Penguins acquired 40-point player Alex Galchenyuk from the Arizona Coyotes in the offseason in a trade that saw them send Phil Kessel to the desert in exchange.
Though Crosby captains the Penguins’ lineup as the team’s major star player, with Malkin falling in right behind, the remainder of the Pittsburgh offense will have to play above and beyond to help replace the forward’s production.