Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin better at faceoffs

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin has never been particularly prolific in faceoffs. But through five games this season, he has won 63.4% of his draws (45 wins, 26 losses).

Prior to this season, Malkin had won only 44.2% of his draws (4,899 wins, 6,181 losses).

During Saturday’s 6-3 road win against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Malkin was 6 for 14 (43%).

“(Malkin) is a very capable guy,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said to media on Wednesday. “I’ve always felt that way and when (Malkin) places an emphasis on any aspect of his game, he tends to be good at it because he’s a talented player. You look at how strong he is, his hand-eye coordination, stick skills — things of that nature — he has all the attributes to be very good in the faceoff circle. And he’s shown an ability to do that at times throughout certainly my tenure as the coach here. When he values something, he’s good at it. That’s been my experience coaching him. And he’s getting opportunities because he’s having success in the faceoff circle, not so much in the offensive zone but even more so in the defensive zone.”

• In Saturday’s game, forward Josh Archibald scored his first goal for the Penguins in 2,025 days.

After being traded to the Arizona Coyotes in December of 2017, Archibald rejoined the Penguins as an unrestricted free agent this past July.

His last goal with the Penguins came in a 7-4 road win against the New Jersey Devils on April 6, 2017. Forwards Scott Wilson and Carter Rowney had assists.

• For the first time in his career, Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel was not a healthy scratch for any games in a season during the 2021-22 campaign. Appearing in 78 games, he was four games short of a full set of 82 due to health-related issues.

But so far this season, he was a healthy scratch for the first four games before being inserted into the lineup on Saturday due to injuries for forwards Teddy Blueger and Jake Guentzel. He logged 9:28 of ice time on 12 shifts and blocked one shot in the contest.