ANAHEIM, Calif. – The quote may be old. But the sentiment remains as true as the day Penguins coach Mike Sullivan first spoke it.
“Discipline, in all of its forms, is what makes a team hard to play against,” Sullivan said about two years back.
The Penguins have been exactly that this season. With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin missing and many more key pieces running through the revolving door of injury and illness, the Penguins instead relied on system, stingy defense and simplicity to achieve success.
Recently, they’re among the NHL’s hottest teams, racking up 29 points since their coach rejoined the team (for good) on Nov. 20 following a bout with COVID-19. And, throughout the entire season, they’ve been one of the most-disciplined clubs in a number of categories.
The Penguins have allowed the fourth-fewest goals per game (2.50). They’re the NHL’s best team at staying out of the box, averaging just 6:27 penalty minutes a game. And they’re the NHL’s best at snuffing out penalty, with an impressive 90.4%.
Now, a crossroads.
Malkin’s return from right knee surgery appears imminent. The 35-year-old center said a few weeks back that the current California swing was a good ballpark guess for when he might make his season debut.
With Malkin’s season debut coming any day now, how will he impact a disciplined, defensive-oriented team?
It’s certainly fair to wonder. On one hand, Malkin has proven himself as an elite offensive playmaker. He possesses a diverse skillset, with size to play a power game, skating to play a speed game and creativity to play a skill game. As recently as the 2019-20 season, he produced on a point-per-game basis (1.35) that only the top-four Hart Trophy candidates bested.
With that said, it’s also true that Malkin is an emotional athlete who sometimes crosses that line. He can be lured into trying to do too much with the puck. He has been known to commit the ill-timed penalty. And, he’s far from the most defensively conscientious player.
Here’s the thing, just because Malkin has fallen victim to these mistakes doesn’t mean he can’t buy into the team concept. In the past three seasons alone, Malkin has ping-ponged back and forth – from risk-taking freelancer stuck in the penalty box, to the committed two-way player driving the train, and back.
As a refresher, in 2018-19, he racked up a career-high 84 giveaways, piled up the second-most penalty minutes of his Penguins tenure (89) and produced a minus-25 rating that was by-far the low water mark.
He came into camp ahead of the 2019-20 season and boldly proclaimed he wanted to prove that he was “not done.” He did that and more, racking up 74 points (25 goals, 49 assists) in 55 games to produce those aforementioned MVP-like numbers. Yet, every time Sullivan was asked about Malkin that season, the thing he pinpointed was discipline.
“What’s really impressed me about Geno’s game right now is just his attention to detail,” Sullivan said during that season. “Off of a won face-off or a lost face-off, he knows what his responsibilities are and he’s paying attention to it. He’s really focused on the details of our overall team game away from the puck. That’s where he’s so capable. When he does that, he becomes a complete 200-foot player.”
During last year’s pandemic-shorted season, we saw both sides of the Jekyll and Hyde Geno.
Following a late January loss in Boston, the always-candid Malkin admitted he needed to “look in the mirror.” At that point, he had recorded just three points in eight games and his turnovers were at a career worst (5.32 per 60 minutes).
“I understand I’m not playing great right now,” Malkin said.
Then a switch flipped. Malkin racked up 17 points in 15 games. He was, arguably, the most-significant driving force behind a surging club that piled up 11 wins in 15 games before colliding knee-to-knee with Boston’s Jarred Tinordi on March 16.
In the days after the injury, Sullivan sent a text message to Malkin. In it, the coach expressed his disappointment, not just in the injury itself but also in the timing.
Soon, Makin will rejoin the red-hot club with a chance to propel the Penguins into another gear … or steer them into the wrong direction. We’ll soon see what Sullivan is saying about his team and its discipline.
