Malkin’s Parents Bring Good Luck in Return to Pittsburgh

After Evgeni Malkin scored his second power-play goal of the night late in the middle frame of Thursday’s matchup with Columbus at PPG Paints Arena, the camera cut to his mom and dad on the videoboard, as is tradition whenever they’re in town from Magnitogorsk, Russia.

Always fan favorites here in Pittsburgh, Vladimir and Natalia were also good luck charms for their son, who led the Penguins to a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jackets with his best performance in a while.

“They come yesterday and they haven’t been here since I think 2018 or ’19. It’s a long time ago, and it probably gives me a little more emotion, and it works, you know?” Evgeni said before jokingly adding, “I’m so mad they did not come in like, October or November. We see tonight, I think yeah, they give me a little bit more motivation.”

Of course, Evgeni would have loved for his parents to visit more frequently since the last one, but it was difficult for a couple of years with the pandemic, and now that they’re older, the travel is more challenging.

They arrived in Pittsburgh yesterday after a 15-hour flight that featured three layovers, with Vladimir and Natalia telling Evgeni that while they were a little bit tired, they were so excited to see him play in person.

“They want to watch a live game, finally,” Evgeni said. “But I know they watch every game from the Internet, they wake up at 3 AM in my hometown and they watch every game, they know everything. Of course, they are not happy with how the team play all year, they want us to make the playoffs, for sure.”

Vladimir and Natalia are staying through the end of this season, which Malkin said he hopes ends with a postseason appearance. That’ll be music to Sidney Crosby’s ears.

“Hopefully they are here for a while,” the captain grinned. “I think the fact they haven’t been here in I think it’s been at least 3 or 4 years, I’m sure that motivated him tonight to have them here. I know it would for all of us. You could definitely see that with the jump and energy that he had.”

It was a vintage Geno performance, starting when Pittsburgh headed to the man-advantage close to the halfway point of the second period. The coaching staff has tried so many different personnel combinations to spark the NHL’s 31^st-ranked power play, and right now, the first group over the boards has been Malkin, Crosby, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust, and new addition Michael Bunting.

Letang served up a dish of a pass just how Malkin likes it, slow and right between the skates, and he absolutely blasted it home to even the score at 1-1 with his 20th goal of the year.

“I want to say thanks to Tanger, he gave me lots of good passes,” Malkin said. “He gave them slow, how I like it, because we’ve played together 17 years, he knows what I like. In between legs, slow pass.”

After Malkin converted just 15 seconds in, he kept firing away, getting two more chances exactly like his goal even after the Blue Jackets went back to full strength. Malkin finished with five shots in the game.

“Geno is shooting. Obviously, when a guy like that has a shot like that, you want to use it as much as you can,” Letang said.

Malkin’s second tally featured a setup from his other longtime teammate. After Malkin fed a pass across the slot to Crosby, the captain gave it back. Malkin held onto it just long enough to get himself in position for a shot that sneaked through Daniil Tarasov and evened the score at 2-2.

“He's a hard worker and he loves scoring goals. That's what he does, and he does it really well,” said Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, who stopped 17 shots in his third straight start and second win in a row.

“It's exciting watching him do it. Like, the second goal, guy got a stick on it, and it just found its way in the net. It was one of those ones that found its way in, but he still celly’ed like he meant to do it all, right? [Laughs] Then obviously, the first one he just blasted by the guy. So, he can do it in a number of ways, and it's just fun to watch.”

It's a remarkable feat that Malkin's reached 20 goals, a number most players in this league would love to hit, and that he's done so at 37. And while he's dealt with some (relatively) lengthy slumps, having scored in one of his last 11 entering this game, a night like this can be an unbelievable boost for Malkin.

"Geno puts a lot of pressure on himself to produce offense, and when he doesn't, nobody feels it more than him. The greatest thing about confidence is, it's fleeting," Mike Sullivan said. "You can get it back as fast as you lose it. It just starts with one good play, right, and then you build on it. So, more so than probably a lot of players, that might be the case with G."