JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Evgeni Malkin celebrates a goal Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena
Evgeni Malkin admitted that he “almost cried a little bit” hearing the loud “GENO! GENO! GENO!” chants at PPG Paints Arena after he completed the hat trick in the Penguins’ 9-4 win over the Panthers on Saturday night.
“It’s huge for me,” he said. “I’m not score, I think, a hat trick, (since) a long time ago. I didn’t remember when I scored the last time. It’s lots of emotion.”
He’d be excused for forgetting — it was his first hat trick since March 27, 2022.
The energy from the crowd, as well as the emotions from hitting the 1,400-point milestone is all secondary to Malkin behind what really matters. The win brought their “magic number” to clinch a playoff spot to just five points. They could clinch a spot in the next few days.
“I love to play here,” Malkin said, reflecting on the whole evening. “I love to play with Sid, Tanger and Karl. We have a great team right now. We played hard. Two points for the team are important, because it’s huge to us. We’re fighting for playoffs, and I think it’s important to fight to make second place, to start at home, you know? I don’t want to stop.”
The Penguins certainly didn’t want to stop scoring in Saturday’s win.
Noel Acciari kicked things off just 20 seconds into the game, popping his own rebound over the head of Sergei Bobrovsky. Erik Karlsson extended the lead on the power play, only for the Panthers to get a pair of goals past Arturs Silovs to tie the game before first intermission. The Penguins then exploded for a six-goal second-period — Anthony Mantha scored his 31st of the year, Malkin scored twice, and Elmer Soderblom added another to chase Bobrovsky. Rickard Rakell and Ryan Shea each scored on Daniil Tarasov to finish the period, and Malkin completed the hat trick in the third. The Panthers added two more tallies to avoid a total blowout.
“Everything works some nights,” Malkin said. “Like, you play the same but, going in every shot. We’ll see tomorrow, because we know this team wins two Cups in two years, and they’ll fight tomorrow, for sure.”
Malkin’s hat trick and assist brings him to 57 points (18 goals, 39 assists) in 53 games, on track to clear a point-per-game pace for the first time since 2022-23. And he’s done it playing a new position on the wing for almost the entire season.
“I love playing center all my life, and now I love playing wing,” he said. “It’s crazy, but maybe I’m an important player, you know? I can play both ways. Talk to Kyle (Dubas) (about) what he loves.”
Malkin jokes, of course. But he’s without a contract for next season, with plans to meet with Dubas over the summer, and Malkin has made clear that he very much wants to stay in Pittsburgh. After a productive game like this one, I asked Malkin if he feels like he’s trying to prove that he deserves a contract out there … and he repeated that the important stuff is yet to come.
“We’ll see how the playoffs work,” Malkin said. “How I play in the playoffs, how I play in the last five games, and we’ll see what’s going on in the summer. But now, it’s the most fun time in the year. I’m enjoying tonight, score a hat trick, give me confidence. But every goal helps me to contract, trust me.”
It was a big night for Malkin, with hats, chants, and postgame celebrations in the locker room with his son Nikita and his best friends. But there’s still work to do, and if anything, a night like this just reinforces why he doesn’t want it to end.