Evgeni Malkin still isn’t expected to make his 2021-22 debut anytime terribly soon but he took a significant step forward Monday afternoon.
“Geno skated for a half-hour with (strength coach) Ty (Hennes) and Cully (Matt Cullen) then joined the team for practice,” coach Mike Sullivan said after a short workout. “He’s making real good progress and we’re encouraged by it. Every week the limitations are less and less and that’s encouraging.”
Malkin wore the familiar white non-contact jersey while rotating in some line rushes then, for the first time this season, got some power play work with the second unit at the end of practice.
Sullivan also said there’s a positive development involving two other star forwards, Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel. “Rusty and Jake skated this morning with Cully and they’re making progress as well,” the coach confirmed.
Meanwhile , winger Danton Heinen, signed in the off-season as a depth forward, has been a lot more than that. Not only he is among just seven players to appear in all 27 Penguins games but (along with Jeff Carter and Evan Rodrigues) he is tied for second on the team with 8 goals. 3 of those came in the first 3 games.
“Getting off to a good start helps, helps a lot actually,” Heinen said. “Just trying to shoot a little more and a few more have found the net this year. It’s a funny game, whether it goes in or it doesn’t and just trying to create more and go to the right areas. That’s something I’m going to keep improving on.”
There is one (frequently) common denominator to Heinen’s success – the aforementioned Jeff Carter. With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin out when the season began, Carter became the number one center. When Bryan Rust was hurt in the second game, Heinen got the battlefield promotion. Since then, they haven’t always played on the same line and they don’t always directly assist on one another’s goals but it seems like good things happen when Heinen and Carter are on the ice together.
“You can’t always predict that as a coach or a coaching staff, what groups will have that type of chemistry or magic,” Sullivan admitted. “We look at the strengths and weaknesses of players and we’re trying to put complementary skill sets together that we think will give us the best chance to be successful but you can’t really anticipate the chemistry until you see it.”
Lately, Heinen has been reunited with Carter and they did happen to set up goals by the other in Seattle. Friday in Washington, Carter didn’t get an assist on Heinen’s goal that gave the Pens a 1-0 first period lead but he did drive the net to help distract Capitals goalie Ilya Samsonov.
“Playing with Carter – he’s a great player,” Heinen smiled.
“He’s scored a lot of goals in this league and played a lot of games so he’s a guy that’s definitely good to learn from. He’s fun to play with, too, so he’s great to play with.”
That may continue for the foreseeable future, since even when Malkin, Rust and Guentzel return, Sullivan may want to stick with the tandem of Carter and Heinen.
“They’ve shown some chemistry for sure and it’s not just the goal production, it’s scoring chances, some of the numbers that we track internally,” Sullivan said Monday. “Certainly in Danton’s case, and Carts’ case – and Zuck (Jason Zucker) has been a part of that as well – those guys have played pretty well for us.”
In a perfect Penguins world (which not be possible in 21-22), envision lines of Crosby-Guentzel-Rust, Malkin-Zucker-Kapanen, Blueger-McGinn-Aston-Reese and Carter-Heinen- Rodrigues.
That would be forward depth, indeed.