Bad News For the penguins regarding Malkin
The Pittsburgh Penguins have a lot of questions as they head into Game 1 of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and Saturday's practice only added to the fears that fans already had about facing a tough and gritty New York Islanders team.
While it's important to note that gamesmanship can come into play at any time during the playoffs, the Penguins had two major red flags at practice on Saturday. The first was goaltender Casey DeSmith's absence, who left practice early on Friday, and the second was injured forward Evgeni Malkin's lack of significant involvement. To be clear, Malkin was on the ice with his teammates, but he did not take part in any of the team's line rushes this time. Instead, here's how the Penguins' forwards performed during those line rushes, just one day before Game 1 against the aforementioned Islanders.
Guentzel - Crosby - Rust
McCann - Carter - Kapanen
Zucker - Gaudreau - Rodrigues
Aston-Reese � Blueger - Tanev
Dumoulin - Letang
Matheson - Ceci
Pettersson - Marino
Malkin also struggled to get some practice time with the team's power play units, which was perhaps even more noteworthy. Malkin did get some power play reps earlier in the week, but the team's decision not to do so today may indicate that the team does not expect him to be able to play in Game 1. Despite the fact that neither the Penguins nor head coach Mike Sullivan have commented on Malkin's status for that game, he appears to be a game-time decision come Monday.
Malkin had just recovered from a knee injury that had held him out for several weeks, but his return was cut short when he appeared to re-injure himself during a regular season game against the Buffalo Sabres. The Penguins will undoubtedly try to cover him as much as possible in the hopes that he will return during the playoffs, but considering his recent injury history, you have to wonder what kind of shape he will be in if he does end up playing.
DeSmith is absent from practice after leaving midway through yesterday's session. Malkin is present, but did not take rushes. Workflow:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McCann-Carter-Kapanen
Zucker-Gaudreau-Rodrigues
Aston-Reese�Blueger-Tanev
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Ceci
Pettersson-Marino� Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 15, 2021
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Will Malkin play game 1? | ||
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