It wasn’t even a big hit, but its impact sent shockwaves reverberating through the National Hockey League.
As Penguins center Evgeni Malkin came in on the forecheck, he was closed off by Columbus defenseman Dalton Prout. Malkin left the crash hunched over in pain.
While the Penguins picked up a crucial two points in a 3-2 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets on March 11, it came at a cost. Malkin’s upper-body injury is going to keep him out five to seven weeks — at least until the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is already underway.
This prognosis could’ve severely maimed the Penguins’ playoff chances.
Malkin is the team’s second-leading goal (27) and point (58) scorer in 57 games played. The four-time NHL All-Star averages 1.02 points per game, good for fifth best in the NHL.
Following Malkin’s injury, the team’s 10th straight consecutive playoff appearance seemed fleeting, as Pittsburgh’s in-state rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, were close to catching up in the standings. But the Penguins are defying logic — winning six straight games against Metropolitan Division opponents.
Now, with just 10 games remaining in the season and without their second-leading scorer, SportsClubStats, a site that estimates teams’ postseason chances, gives the Pens a 98.3 percent chance of making the playoffs.
A reputation for bouncing back
At the onset of the season, despite rising expectations for an electric offense, the Penguins floundered to a rough start under second-year head coach Mike Johnston.
Fans were getting restless — the offense was sputtering and the Penguins’ best players were underperforming.
On Dec. 12, the Penguins fired Johnston amid a 15-10-3 start. Pittsburgh tabbed Mike Sullivan, the team’s AHL head coach at the time, to lead the team, which at mid-December had just a 25 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to SportsClubStats.
It’s been 25-14-5 since. And the last time the Penguins made an in-season coaching change was also the last time they won the Stanley Cup.
Dan Bylsma, a mid-season switch from former coach Michel Therrien, led them to the third championship in franchise history in 2009.
Since Crosby’s NHL debut in 2005, injuries have limited what would otherwise be a star-studded squad from reaching the heights of 2009’s championship team.
Last year, defenseman Kris Letang suffered a late-season concussion that kept him out of any playoff action. Malkin was visibly banged up at the end of the regular season. He had zero points before the Rangers sent the Penguins home packing from the playoffs in five games.
Even with another Malkin injury a week and a half ago, the Penguins’ six straight victories show the flightless birds taking off at the right time.
The Penguins’ return to the playoff picture has a lot to do with the Crosby’s resurgence, whose scoring exploits have propelled the Penguins up to third in the Metropolitan Division with 88 points.
Rink Leaders
Crosby got off to the worst start of his career this season, registering just nine points in the first 18 games and often appearing reluctant to shoot the puck.
Since the shift in guard, he has hit his stride, producing 67 points in his last 53 games. His 76 points are good for third in the league. He’s in the middle of a 12-game point-scoring streak and with 31 goals on the year, has the seventh 30-goal season of his career.
Sniper Phil Kessel, a product of a trade with Toronto this offseason, joins Crosby to make up a dangerous power play unit. Kessel has 21 goals on the year, sits at 19th in the league and operates at a 17.7 percent clip.
Pittsburgh made some adjustments through the trade market this season with the acquisition of two offensively gifted defensemen, Trevor Daley, formerly of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Justin Schultz from the Edmonton Oilers.
Both defensemen have settled into the team’s second power play unit, operating the points.
Pittsburgh also brought in fleet-of-foot Carl Hagelin from the Anaheim Ducks. Hagelin, one of the quickest players in the NHL, has five goals and 13 assists in 27 games this season.
Various players from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, including forwards Bryan Rust, Tom Kuhnhackl and Scott Wilson — and at times, goaltender Matt Murray — have been valuable in the NHL. Their success can be linked to a familiarity with what systems Sullivan was previously implementing in the minors.
In the Pens’ most recent win over Washington, Daley, Rust, Kuhnhackl and Schultz all scored, showing that Malkin’s absence has spurred an increased sense of responsibility in the team’s newest additions.
Ranger Danger
The Pens’ streak — the longest active winning streak in the league — claimed its latest victim on Sunday against the Washington Capitals. Despite having the most points in the league (107), Washington fell easily to Pittsburgh, 6-2.
The Penguins are now entrenched in a chaotic battle for playoff seeding among the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers.
Pittsburgh’s most likely first-round opponents, the New York Rangers, are a familiar foe. The rivals have met in the spring the past two years. Both encounters ended in defeat for Pittsburgh as the Rangers won in seven games in 2013 and five in 2014.
The Penguins are 2-1-0 against the Rangers this season, with a final meeting set for March 27 in New York.
A Rangers-Penguins face-off would be much more favorable for the Pens than a first-round date with the Washington Capitals. The Penguins would end up playing Washington if they remained the eighth seed, where they were positioned just a week ago.
The Capitals’ franchise-best start saw them become the first team to clinch a playoff spot this season, doing so on March 15th. They have 107 points in 71 games. The next closest team, the Dallas Stars, have 95.
Six of the Penguins’ final 10 games are against Metropolitan Division opponents, including two against the high-flying Flyers. They also meet the Rangers, Islanders and Capitals and have crucial matchups against the Detroit Red Wings and the streaking Nashville Predators.
Their final game of the season is on April 9 against the surging Flyers, who have grabbed 19 out of a possible 24 points in their last 12 games. With playoff implications at stake, it’ll be a playoff-like atmosphere nightly to close out the regular season.
That stadium, during the Penguins’ recent games against division opponents, has been buzzing with a playoff-like ambiance. These late-season matchups have an extra gear to them since the road to the Stanley Cup now goes through each division, following the NHL’s changes to the playoff format prior to the 2013 season.
The beauty of the NHL? Once you’re in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, anything can happen, including a return from your second-leading point scorer when the games begin to matter most.
“Toward the end of the year, it’s going to be games like that, one-goal games,” Letang told NBC Sports. “You have to be comfortable in those.”