Penguins stars play off each other
Decorated Crosby and Malkin are ingrained among the greats in Pittsburgh’s hockey lore
This is how it works with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
“It’s a good competition between me and Sid,” the usually quiet Malkin said. “It’s like, Sid scores, I want to score two.
“Sid scores one more, I want to score one more. “Sid scores hat trick, I stop.” The crowd surrounding Geno Malkin on Media Day at the Stanley Cup laugh along with the big Pittsburgh centre. The other centre, at the next podium, not as big, not as funny, the bigger name, the bigger star, hears the laughter and looks around.
“That’s Geno,” said Crosby. “He’s a laid back guy but he’s pretty funny.”
Why not laugh and smile and enjoy life if you’re Crosby and Malkin? They have been teammates for 11 seasons in Pittsburgh. They have won two Stanley Cups together, lost another. This is now a legacy opportunity for them: A chance for a third Stanley Cup.
Win this Cup and it’s one better than Mario Lemieux, the superstar owner, won as a player. Win this Cup and it’s one fewer than Wayne Gretzky won in Edmonton. Win this Cup and it ties Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane in the salary cap era with three titles. Win this Cup and it’s the first back to back NHL champion in almost 20 years.
Malkin leads the playoffs in scoring. Crosby is second. They have both won Conn Smythe Trophies. Crosby has two Hart Trophies, Malkin one. Malkin has a Calder Trophy, Crosby doesn’t. They each have two scoring titles. It goes back and forth that way, these great hockey gifts who came in consecutive NHL drafts.
“One day Pittsburgh Penguins draft me,” said Malkin “One day they draft Sidney Crosby. It’s two lucky days.”
Lucky to be here, to be together, to be the 1-2 punch nobody in hockey can compare with. This isn’t anything close to a perfect Penguins team. The two legacy centres though — the one who made the Top 100 list and the one was somehow left off — are the test for the Nashville, no centre, Predators. And they feed off each other, not just with lines off the ice, but with a daily drive they each demonstrate in their own and very different way.
“Like (Wayne) Gretzky said one day about (Mark) Messier. Small competition every day between him and Messier. Who’s better today? Who’s better tomorrow? I don’t want to be like No. 1 (centre) in Carolina or something like that. Not that I want to say bad about Carolina.
“I want to be better than Sid. I want to be better every day. Every practice, he is the most professional player I have ever seen. He wants to be better every day.”
And still this hockey obsessed town is more about Lemieux than anyone else. His name is on statues, buildings, scholarships, awards. No one can ever be a larger figure than Mario. That’s what makes this week so remarkable and potentially historical. In this hockey town where the franchise was built by Lemieux and saved by Lemieux, Crosby and Malkin could well surpass him. Malkin disagrees. “If I win one more, Mario wins one more,” he said. “He’d have four (actually five, two as player, three as owner). I’ll never beat him. I can’t. I don’t think about that. Mario is a hero here. We’re all proud of Mario. Amazing player, amazing guy.”
Jim Rutherford inherited Crosby and Malkin when he signed on as general manager of the Penguins. Half of the teams in the NHL are searching for a first line centreman. He has two of the best.
“With Sid and Geno, they are carving out very special legacies for themselves,” he said. “Let’s take it back a step. Winning one Stanley Cup in unbelievable. It’s very hard to win one. Now these guys have two. They have a chance to win another one. And in my opinion, they have a chance to win maybe another one after that. It’s not like they’re slowing down.”
Crosby was known for his concussion history but it has been Malkin who has been hurt more the past four seasons. Crosby has only missed 16 games the past four years. The larger, thicker, Malkin has averaged 20 lost games a season. But both are healthy now, and ready for the challenge of the Predators.
“It’s going to be hard,” said Malkin. That’s what he said about this series with Nashville. He wasn’t being sportsmanlike. He called it “the biggest challenge of my life.”