The Pittsburgh Penguins announced that star center Evgeni Malkin is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The news came out unexpectedly just minutes before the Penguins were set to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets this evening. In Malkin’s absence, Cody Glass will center the Penguins second line tonight, and forward Jesse Puljujarvi will draw back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last month.
Malkin has been surprisingly healthy in the latter stages of his career, having played 82 games in each of the last two seasons. The 38-year-old isn’t having one of his better offensive seasons, but he remains a capable second-line center for Pittsburgh and the drop-off with him out of the lineup will be substantial. Pittsburgh has been fortunate to have both Malkin and Sidney Crosby dress in every game over the past two and a half seasons, but it hasn’t helped them in the standings as the team has missed the playoffs for two straight years and is in a dog fight to make it this season.
Malkin skated with the Penguins today, so its isn’t exactly clear what the issue is or when it occurred. He last played on Sunday against Carolina and was held without a point in 17:44 of ice time.
The former second-overall pick has eight goals and 24 assists in 41 games this season and has been better defensively for Pittsburgh than in previous years. Despite more attention to his defensive game, Malkin has struggled with turnovers as he no longer has the footspeed to create open ice for himself and has tried to force a lot of plays that result in giveaways.
Pittsburgh enters tonight tied for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference and will need to beat teams like Columbus if they hope to break their two-year playoff drought.