Losing Erik Karlsson for multiple weeks is going to put strain on the Pittsburgh Penguins. It comes at a time where the Eastern Conference playoff race has only three teams not within six points of a playoff spot.
Through two games, the Penguins have earned three out of a possible four points sans Karlsson. They dropped an exciting 2-1 game to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a shootout on Tuesday. Last night, they ran the Philadelphia Flyers out of the building to the home crowd’s delight in a 6-3 victory.
The victory moved the Penguins into third place in the division. Their path to playoffs will be a lot less stressful if they can avoid the wild card chase and just take one of the three divisional spots. Here’s a look at the standings today
The Flyers are trending in the wrong direction having lost their last five games after last night. The Penguins absolutely have a path to be in the top three of their division.
Crosby does it again to the Flyers
A tale as old as time, Sidney Crosby has a multi-point night against the Philadelphia Flyers in a Penguins victory. It happened yet again, last night. Crosby finished the night with a goal and an assist. This was after going pointless in three consecutive contests. The Flyers were a perfect elixir for Crosby’s mini-drought. They usually are.
His power play goal came off of a beautiful feed from none other than Evgeni Malkin.
We still get these moments in 2026 and it is great.
Malkin picking up where he left off
Evgeni Malkin is having a wonderful season at 39 years of age. After two assists last night he is up to 34 points in only 31 games played. It took Malkin a second to get acclimated back to game speed upon return on top of playing wing. He’s done a nice job so far. He has five points in his five games back and has been in on half of the Penguins last ten goals
I’m going to put my insider hat on for a second. Ahem:
Evgeni Malkin is not going to be traded by the Penguins
ESPN couldn’t help but try to squeeze in some Malkin trade speculation. They run a below average broadcast with dim analysts. Pay no mind to them catering to the lowest common denominator in their audience, it is their specialty.
Russian duo
Early returns on Egor Chinakhov have been pretty positive. He is starting to look more comfortable each game. His skating speed and shot have been pretty evident from the get go. Thus far, his motor is always going and he isn’t taking shifts off. He’s had a few different line combinations to this point, but I think they may have something with him and Malkin.
Aside from the common spoken language they share I think they can speak the same language on the ice, too. At this stage of his career Malkin is not going to be racing up and down the ice like he used to. He is going to slow down and manipulate east to west passing lanes. His playmaking can free up others so they have time to make plays. When you think about Chinakhov’s speed and shot he becomes a great candidate to be the recipient of those passes. Last night, we saw one of those exact scenarios.
Chinakhov should be able to find more success with the Penguins than he did the Blue Jackets. Even with the Penguins going through a retool the Blue Jackets just don’t have the same culture and infrastructure the Penguins do. Having a room led by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and even Erik Karlsson is going to carry a lot more weight than a team like Columbus still trying to find their way.
Chinakhov plateaued with Columbus and he won’t be the first or last younger player to do so with an organization. Who knows, he might plateau with Pittsburgh, we are still way too early in the process to know. However, the early production is way better in Pittsburgh than it was in Ohio
I’d leave Chinakhov with Malkin regardless of if Malkin is on the wing or at center. Let’s see where things go when you blend their skillsets together.
Up next for the Penguins… the Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus is the second worst team in the Eastern Conference, but also better than seven teams in the Western Conference. So not quite as bad as second to last place, but still a team the Penguins have to defeat if they are serious about taking one of those top three spots in the division.
Big night for Egor and the Penguins on Saturday at home.
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