The notion that Evgeni Malkin is to blame for the Pittsburgh Penguins' struggles to start the 2015-16 NHL season is one that hasn't been broached before. Malkin, the Pens' second line center and the superstar 1B to Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby's 1A, has 12 goals and 14 assists through just 27 games this season. Assuming he stays healthy, Malkin's season numbers project to a total much higher than he's produced at any point over the last three years.
In short, Malkin has been a bright spot on an otherwise struggling Penguins team. That's why it's so interesting that Don Cherry, a man known to speak his mind, whether well thought out or not, indicated recently that he believes Malkin was a big reason behind the Pens' early season struggles.
"I don't think [Evgeni] Malkin was playing like Malkin," Cherry, who was promoting the latest installment of "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Hockey" told Luke Fox of Sportsnet. "When you get a superstar like that and he's not going, then you're in trouble. I don't care what the rest of the guys are doing. He seems to be pulling out of it now. He seems to be interested now. Ever since he blasted the team, he picked it up [scoring 10 points in his last 10 games]. I guess he figured he himself better get going, too. I think the big problem there was Malkin."
It was back in mid-November when Malkin uttered those few phrases that seemed to so succinctly sum up what had gone wrong already for the Pens this year.
"Everything," Malkin said at the time, via For The Win, when asked what he thought was ailing the team. "We don't play right, we don't work hard. I know it's tough right now, but I know we're mad at each other. We need to stop, look in the mirror...start working. We're not working."
He then added - "Now we're really mad at each other, we don't believe anymore, we're not happy. But it's the beginning of the season, it's a good time to stop and move forward."
Likely at the behest of the higher ups in the Pittsburgh organization, Malkin attempted to walk those comments back in the days following. But the damage had already been done. And with the team continuing to struggle - despite defeating the Avalanche on Wednesday, the Pens have now lost five of their last nine games - talk continued to persist that something was amiss in Pittsburgh.
Rumors are now swirling - and have been swirling for some time - that GM Jim Rutherford is eyeing trades and considering dollar in, dollar out deals.
And while there are any number of reasons the Pens have failed to realize their potential to this point - lack of chemistry between Crosby and Phil Kessel, the defense, reported pressure from ownership on Crosby, the defense, head coach Mike Johnston's decision-making in terms of Daniel Sprong, the defense, and the defense - Malkin doesn't seem to be among them.
Then again, Cherry's been watching the game a long time. Maybe it's something most of us just haven't noticed.
But when Malkin's doing things like this...
...and like this...
...it's hard to consider him part of the problem.
