Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) and right wing Patric Hornqvist (72) react to a power play goal by Malkin in Game 4.John Hefti
Except for that puzzling, perplexing goal-scoring slump, things have actually been going pretty well for the Pittsburgh Penguins' Evgeni Malkin. New baby, healthy, mother doing well. Malkin acknowledged he wasn't sleeping much at night, but it didn't matter. He was happy; life was good, but it got just a little bit better Monday night.
Malkin scored his first goal in eight games and added an assist for his first two points of the Stanley Cup final, the difference in the Penguins' 3-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center.
The win also means Pittsburgh is now up 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, with a chance to win the Stanley Cup on home ice Thursday night.
Malkin was the playoff's most valuable player the last time the Penguins won the Cup back in 2009, back when he was a relative newbie to the NHL, but produced a dominant post-season, playing with his pal Max Talbot. Some seven years later, Talbot is off to play in Russia, Malkin's English is far better, but his play, at times in these playoffs, has been erratic.
It hasn't mattered as much as in past years, mostly because the Penguins are getting offensive sparks from up-and-down their line-ups. Pittsburgh has been on a weird karmic ride since about December, with one unlikely scoring hero after another emerging during their playoff run.
The latest in that long line was defenceman Ian Cole, who hadn't managed a goal in about 15 months, before opening the scoring in the pivotal fourth game, a play that began with Malkin taking a hit in the neutral zone to get the puck to Phil Kessel, skating in full stride.
The Sharks were guilty of massively botching a line change on the play, which left Cole wide open, skating down the left wing and in perfect position to convert the rebound of a Kessel shot past San Jose goaltender Martin Jones.
Cole's early goal forced the Sharks to chase the game again, which was exactly the opposite of the game plan San Jose coach Peter DeBoer outlined during Monday morning's press briefing. High on DeBoer's to-do-list: Get on the board first, the way they did so many times in the first three rounds, which is why they're there in the Stanley Cup to begin with.
That they couldn't do it had a lot to do with an energized game the Penguins received from Malkin, who scored the eventual game winner early in the second, the Penguins' first power-play goal of the series, which pushed their lead to two goals.
On Malkin's goal, Sidney Crosby made the play possible, even if he didn't earn an official assist on the play, by winning a face-off from the Sharks' Chris Tierney cleanly back to Kris Letang at the point. Letang, who played big important minutes again for the Penguins on the blue line, played pitch-and-catch with Kessel, before Kessel threaded a pass through to Malkin, positioned at the goal post for an easy tap-in.
The goal came nine seconds after Melker Karlsson was sent off to interfering with the Penguins' Eric Fehr, a play DeBoer indicated he thought was a dive.
Karlsson helped the Sharks get it close, scoring his fourth of the playoffs just before the halfway point of the third period, after his line – with Tierney and NicK Spaling – controlled the puck in the Penguins' zone for most of their shift. It re-energized the crowd, which had had little to cheer about after Malkin's goal and set the stage for a big push that was ultimately unsuccessful. Fehr's goal with 2:02 to go in the third period put the game on ice for the Penguins.
Sullivan had been adamant through Malkin's slump – that as long as he was doing the right things in other areas of the game, he wasn't too worried about the lack of production on the score sheet, noting: "We just talked to Geno about not forcing plays, taking what the game gives you, being strong on the puck, not passing up an opportunity to shoot when he gets inside the dots. We're trying to give him some common sense advice on how to simplify your game and be effective.
"He's such an instinctive player, when he plays the game the right way and he doesn't force things and sees the plays that he needs to make … that's when we, as a group, become more difficult to play against. We don't feed our opponent's transition game. We force them to have to play goal line to goal line. That, for me, is playoff hockey."
Malkin's goal left the Sharks reeling badly for a time and they were lucky it wasn't 4-0 within the next two minutes, after both Justin Schultz and Tom Kuhnhackl rattled shots off the post.
San Jose eventually settled things down, though the Sharks were still having a hard time getting shots through the net, with Joe Pavelski, their leading scorer and team captain, probably the most frustrated of all. Once they'd fallen behind by two, DeBoer loaded up his top line again, moving Logan Couture up with Pavelski and Joe Thornton, to try and break through the resolute Penguins' defence.
Tomas Hertl normally plays on that top line at even strength, but he missed his second consecutive game with a lower body injury and speculation is, he may be done for the playoffs.
Pavelski has no points in the series, after scoring 13 goals in the first three rounds, but the Sharks need more from everyone, and they especially need to see what happens if the Penguins were to ever actually fall behind in a game. Thus far, the Sharks have not played with the lead for a single minute in the series. Pittsburgh's starts have been razor-sharp. San Jose's have been non-existent.
"When you have the lead, you can play differently," said DeBoer. "You feel a lot more comfortable getting in a four-line rhythm, putting your guys out there, trusting them. There's not that pressure that we have to create a scoring chance or score a goal. We can just manage the game, put our time in. I think they've done a good job of that because they've had the lead, and we haven't put ourselves in that situation yet. We've got to find an answer for that."
Sadly for the Sharks, it might be too late.
Since the final went to the best-of-seven format in 1939, teams that have taken a 3-1 series lead have gone on to capture the Stanley Cup 31 of 32 times, according to the NHL. The lone exception came in 1942, when the Maple Leafs became the first team in NHL history to overcome a 3-0 series deficit versus the Detroit Red Wings. At this point, the Sharks are either going to have to make history – or be history.