If at the end of the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL) ) fans, journalists and experts are asked to make a list of the main disappointments of the championship, the Pittsburgh Penguins will probably be among the majority of them. Yes, the Penguins in their current state are no longer expected to have big victories or chase the Stanley Cup, but Mike Sullivan’s team clearly didn’t expect such a sad situation either.
Pittsburgh has been plagued throughout the season with a ton of missed chances and trouble getting their stars to produce results and help the team. As a result, the Penguins risk remaining without participation in the playoffs for the second season in a row: they will compete with the Washington Capitals, Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders for the second ticket to the wild card. They can, but their chances are frankly small. Only in fragments does Pittsburgh give its fans reasons to rejoice and believe in a better outcome. As it should be, leaders have a hand in this.
For example, Evgeni Malkin. The Russian striker has been under enormous public pressure for many years now and has been fending off one after another wave of criticism from journalists. There haven't been many of these attacks against Gino in recent days. Recently, Evgeniy, in front of his parents, destroyed the Columbus Blue Jackets, and today he dealt with the New Jersey Devils. For most of the match, the Pens were hopelessly “flying” to the “devils” and after the first two periods they lost with a score of 1:3. But in the third 20 minutes, Pittsburgh unexpectedly took action and fired a burst, scoring five unanswered goals. Three of them were with the participation of Malkin.
Gino assisted in the episode with Sidney Crosby's goal, and then scored two goals himself.
To the three scoring points, which ultimately became victorious for the Penguins, Malkin also added a deletion. Well, what is a match for Evgeniy without at least a two-minute penalty? With the score tied, Gino did not play very carefully against Shimon Nemec and, in violation of the rules, slammed the Slovak into the boards. In the end, he could not do without medical help. Malkin was punished with a minor fine, which, fortunately for Evgeniy, did not lead to a goal against Pittsburgh.
Another Pens leader, Sidney Crosby, also showed himself impressively and effectively. The legendary Canadian extended his personal scoring streak to six matches and scored a double in the second game in a row. Sid is getting closer to getting into the top 20 in the sniper standings in the history of the NHL championships. He already has 589 goals. Before repeating the result of Jari Kurri — 12 goals.
The situation in the East after another day of play is very interesting. Washington, which today lost without a chance to Buffalo (2:6), remains fourth in the Metropolitan Division and eighth in the Eastern Conference table, respectively. The Capitals have 82 points after 74 games. Detroit scored the same number of points, but the Red Wings played one more game. They are followed by the New York Islanders (81 points in 75 games) and Pittsburgh (79 points in 75 games). The Pens have the most important matches of the season ahead: against Washington, Tampa, Detroit, Boston, Nashville and the Islanders. Almost all are direct competitors. The fight for the playoffs in the East promises to be very hot.
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