When Evgeni Malkin went down with a brutal right knee injury last season, it was a blow to the Penguins lineup they absolutely could not afford with Sidney Crosby already out with a concussion. Losing both of their superstar centers at the same time proved to be something the Penguins couldn’t totally overcome in the end as they were bounced out of the playoffs by Tampa Bay in the first round in seven games.
With the severity of Malkin’s injury and his tenacious work ethic in rehabbing his knee after surgery, the next step for him is to get the knee’s health back to 100%. With the long summer break leading up to training camp in mid-September, Malkin is working hard to get back into action.
Sam Kasan of Penguins.com gets the word from Malkin about how good his knee feels and where he’s at in his rehabilitation process.Malkin, a former NHL scoring champion and playoff MVP, says his recovery is going well. He expects to be back to 100 percent by the start of Penguins training camp in mid-September, and believes he will not be limited at all during the camp by his knee.
“It feels better everyday,” said Malkin, who turned 25 years old Sunday. “It’s good, but not 100 percent yet, maybe 90. I’m skating it hard, but my knee feels good. Soon I will try (full speed). I push it more each day.”
This is great news for the Penguins as getting Malkin back fully recovered will give them at least one of their big time stars to have at the start of the season. With Sidney Crosby’s progress still slow in coming back from a concussion suffered in early January, the Penguins still aren’t quite sure if they’ll have him at the start of training camp and ready to go.
While the Penguins weren’t overly busy in free agency, getting both Malkin and Crosby back will make all the difference in the world for Pittsburgh offensively. The team learned to become a lot better defensively all around last year with both of them out, but if you can inject their offensive production into that lineup with better defense, the Penguins shape up to be that same juggernaut-like team they were before things blew up on them last season.