Comments on: Searching for Evgeni Malkin’s game

By: jpelle82

jpelle82 — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:23:27 +0000

pure laziness. you can see it every shift. i’ve played with his type…just kinda floats around the ice waiting for the puck. keeps his head down and tries to plow his way to the net. ovechkin is a one trick pony and the league has figured him out…he is lazy too. Malkin just needs to buy in and submit or find a team that will play around his style. ovechkin needs a trainer…his little between the defender’s legs shot aint working anymore and aint gonna secure a career in this constantly evolving league

By: clusterpuck

clusterpuck — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:41:00 +0000

First I find it interesting that all the big Russians, Malkin Ovechkin Gonchar Kovalchuk Semin are having horrendous years. Datsyuk was ok until he got hurt. Weird.

As for Malkin his big contract was signed the year before he went nuts and the Pens won the Cup and he led the league in scoring from start to finish. So I dont think it was contract. He’s just not in it mentally and/or isnt playing with the same drive he used to.

Pens were up 3-1 last night late and he made god awful turnovers almost leading to goals for Detroit. This happens regularly with him. This tells me he isn’t in the game mentally. He’s also the only Penguin that doesnt play to Bylsma’s system. I’d be willing to bet there are some really pissed off Pens in that locker room because it’s pretty obviouis he doesn;t buy in to the team game most of the time. He does his own thing to much. And it’s not the system holding him back….Crosby was ripping the NHL to pieces playing in that system and Malkin should be doing the same.

By: willcoop

willcoop — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:46:17 +0000

Trade him to Chicago to be with Marian Hossa, and between the both of them just maybe you can put one body on the ice. Big contracts = broke bodies and press box time.

By: psujay

psujay — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:07:27 +0000

I think he just isn’t as hard of a worker as Crosby, so his game hasn’t evolved and the defensemen in the NHL have caught on a bit. Also, those two huge contracts the pens gave out have really hurt their depth, allowing the other teams to focus on Crosby and malkin a lot more than early in their career when they were both producing on entry level contracts. If there were no salary cap and the Pens could sign a top 6 and a top 9 winger to go with their young stars they would produce at a much higher level. If Crosby played on a team with the depth at forward of say, Philadelphia, he’d likely have 100+ assists a year. Instead he’s looking at Mike Comrie as though he might eat him.

I fully believe that Crosby’s rise as a goal scorer came from frustration after watching sub par wingers fail to bury his perfect feeds, until finally he just thought “screw this, I’ll do it myself.” … and then proceeded to win the Richard.