The Pittsburgh Penguins’ first game back from their coronavirus pause was a wild one. Sunday’s contest against the San Jose Sharks featured a 6-1 lead for the Pens after one period. That narrowed to a 6-5 lead in the third before eventually leading to an 8-5 win.
Two hat tricks were registered by Penguins. The first came courtesy of Evan Rodrigues.
As Run-D.M.C. would say, "It's tricky. Tricky, tricky, tricky." pic.twitter.com/k3PQuDKMAb
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 2, 2022
Then Bryan Rust tallied one as well.
Can't stop, won't stop.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 2, 2022
How about another hatty? THE RUST-TRICK! ???????? pic.twitter.com/0LzCpvGY65
It was the Penguins’ first double hat-trick game since Petr Sykora and Pascal Dupuis pulled it off in December 2008.
The Penguins have won eight straight games. But Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLIVE is concerned about what will happen once center Evgeni Malkin returns from injury.
“I think Geno is going to ruin the structure,” Madden said during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast. “I think he is going to beat it to death with a sledgehammer. I think he will play how he wants, and that will ruin one line. You can’t play different systems with different lines. You can maybe have one line play a little differently if it plays more defensive — like a traditional third or fourth line. But to have just one line play wide open?”
Madden doesn’t like that concept. And he worries about the ripple effect of what may happen if Malkin freelances too much.
“My worry is that he’ll drag (defenseman Kris) Letang with him if Letang plays too often behind Geno,” Madden added.
In a recent media interview, Malkin inferred that money is not his concern right now, even as his $9.5 million contract will expire in Pittsburgh at the end of this season. So should we assume that means Malkin will take a hometown discount to stay with the Penguins?
“I don’t think he’ll give one penny off,” Madden said. “He might give a hometown discount if no one else pays him big money. But somebody will, depending on how he plays and how healthy he is when he comes back.”
Like Malkin, Letang has a contract that expires after this season. Madden said that he doesn’t feel Letang will sign a hometown discount extension either. If that’s the case, one has to wonder if the Penguins would consider trading either player before the deadline, even if they are in playoff contention.
“They should,” Madden said. “Because as well as they are playing, they aren’t going to win the Stanley Cup. So they should trade both for a No. 1 pick each at the trade deadline. Plus, a little bit more on top of that, like an NHL player. But they just aren’t going to do that.”
Madden’s rationale for that belief is that he feels the franchise is taking Sidney Crosby’s feelings into account.
“They could be dead last in the Metro (Division), and they would keep them through the end of the season because they don’t want to anger Sid. There is a lot to that. Anger is a strong word. But they don’t want to disappoint Sid,” Madden insisted.
Also in this week’s podcast, Madden and I discuss the Steelers’ flickering playoff hopes, Monday night’s game against the Browns and the idea of life after Ben Roethlisberger.
Listen: Tim Benz and Mark Madden discuss what will happen when Evgeni Malkin returns to the Penguins
