CRANBERRY TWP., PA (93.7 The Fan) – Evgeni Malkin admitted last night wasn’t great. It’s a tough situation, but the veteran, future Hall of Famer wants to remain with the organization.
“I want to stay here, you know?” Malkin said. “If I wanted to change teams, I probably would have changed two years ago. Again, this is my home, second home. I'm most happy here. I've had injuries. Now, it's a tough situation. I want to be here."
He wants to stick it out through the tough times and find a way to get it back to where it was. For this season, that would be a monumental effort. Malkin said he saw it before where the team rolled off a double-digit win streak. But that was a different time with a different group of players.
Malkin said they need a better mood around the team right now.
“We have great players, but not a great team right,” Malkin said. “We need to help each other and support each other.”
He speculated that maybe having new players will give them energy. Maybe there will be less pressure after the trade deadline and they can play more relaxed. He said he still believes in himself and what he called a great organization. It wasn’t Thursday night.
“Last night was not a great night for us,” Malkin said. “I want to say sorry to fans because they pay for tickets. They come to the rink and they see this game. It’s not great. We need to play harder for sure.”
"I think elevating the mood in here could help definitely go a long way,” said forward Bryan Rust. “Obviously it's a difficult thing but sometimes in life you've got to 'fake it till you make it' and you've got to try and manufacture some good happy feelings and some up tempo and attitude and some laughter and some fun because I think if the more you kind of try and manufacture that, the more natural it will come at a time like this."
Young fans have never experienced this, most in the locker room are foreign to this. The rebuild is sinking in and it’s never fun.
“This is a challenge we have to overcome together,” said Pens head coach Mike Sullivan. “We will try to do that. We started today with a spirited practice with the right energy. We are going to try to bring the right energy and practice every day and we are going to try to put our best game on the ice. That is our responsibility to one another.”