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daveeb;1461619; said:Malkin is the kind of player that needs to have a lot of ice time early to get into his groove. 11 minutes through two periods won't cut it. Going 7 minutes per period will. Malkin averaged 22 minutes of ice time during the season. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but the 3 minutes of ice time he isn't getting per game is really hurting his game. Those minutes of ice time are going to Jordan Staal. That's stupid. The lack of ice time can be attributed to his poor wingers at times, yes. But, there has to be ways to get him involved.
Malkin isn't like Crosby or Ovechkin. What Crosby and Ovechkin have can't be radically affected by coaching. Malkin relies on having a coach that looks into his best interests at all times. He can be as great as Crosby and Ovechkin when put into positions to succeed. But, he is much more reliant upon the influence of the head coach.
Malkin played well against Philly, yes. But, a lot of that can honestly be attributed to the fact that Philly wasn't anywhere near as great as the Pens can be. However, it is true that he did play well against Philly. However, he started to disappear after the first three games. He has zero goals since Game 3. When did he score his Game 3 goals? When Bylsma put him on the ice in the 1st period.
Malkin needs to be on the ice more. How this is done is irrelevant. Some PK time wouldn't hurt. Bylsma's predeccessor often put Malkin on the PK early to get him rolling. The bottom line is that he is a -4 since Game 3. It's not that he isn't getting an assist or two every game. It's that he isn't getting into his groove.
It's the same as putting LeBron James in during the 4th quarter with only 7 minutes left in the game. Those extra two minutes LeBron gets mean something. He gets moving with extra drives to the net and post-ups.
He seriously needs some double shifts. Tonight, Malkin scared me. He took a bad penalty. Malkin rarely takes a truly terrible penalty. The trip on Steckel will be called a dive by many Pens fans. I don't want to call it a dive, partially because I don't want to even consider the idea that a Buckeye could cheat. But, in retrospect, it looks like a superstar being fed up with carrying the cross known as Ruslan Fedotenko and Petr Sykora. Maybe it's Petr's lack of ability to do anything. Maybe it was Fedex falling over with an open net after Malkin worked his tail off to get a pass to him. To me, that penalty Malkin took was important. The resulting PP? An Ovechkin goal.
What a wonderfully interesting image. With time running out, Crosby is hacking away at the puck desperately and Malkin is standing there, watching. Truly symbolic.
Malkin can do better. That's all I'm saying. He needs 22 minutes a game, badly. I didn't like the idea of strong criticism of Evgeni Malkin before the bad penalty. He was playing his tail off, and the reality of the matter was that his linemates just weren't pulling through. But, that penalty may have cost the Pens the game.
It's not that Crosby and Malkin can't be on the same team. Maybe it's just that Malkin and Staal can't be on the same team at the same position. They both need that PK time. The best move may be to move Staal to LW next season. You can't pay a 3rd line center $4mil, but you can pay a Top 6 LW $4mil.
Plus, how many times did we see the image of Staal and Kennedy on a 2 on 1 or a 3 on 2? If I was a play-by-play announcer, the call would sound exactly like this...
"Here come Staal and Kennedy on an odd-man break. Annnnnndddd... now the Capitals have the puck."
Every. Single. Time.
For the record, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing these lines.
Malkin-Crosby-Guerin
Kunitz-Staal-Fedotenko (Played RW in Tampa)
Cooke-Kennedy-Satan
Dupuis-Talbot-Adams
For the record, Datsyuk and Zetterburg's cap hits are 6.7mil and 6.083mil respectively. This allowed them to re-sign Franzen.
Brutus1;1461772; said:No rooting interest ? Are you telling me you didn't bet
30MM on either side?