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Evgeni Malkin is on the sidelines - again

Evgeni Malkin

Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin heads back to the bench in the second period against the Boston Bruins in an NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh on Monday, Jan. 10, 2011. The Bruins won 4-2. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

AP

It’s a good thing the Pittsburgh Penguins have showed that they can be competitive even without superstars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, because they’ve had to do that a lot lately. Malkin, whose 2010-11 campaign ended on February 4th because of a torn MCL and ACL in his right knee, has already missed two games because of soreness in his surgically repaired knee. He registered two assists in his return on Thursday, but it looks like he isn’t out of the woods yet.

The Penguins’ NHL site released this brief statement from coach Dan Bylsma:

Malkin was not on the ice this morning and he will not be in the game tonight.

He didn’t specify the nature of Malkin’s problem, so it could be anything, but the safe money is on Malkin’s right knee acting up again. The silver lining is that we’ve seen plenty of evidence that this injury hasn’t slowed Malkin down significantly on the days that he does play. He has a goal, three assists, and eight penalty minutes in three contests.

This might be a problem that goes away as the season progresses or it might be something that lingers throughout the 2011-12 campaign. On the plus side, Sidney Crosby is making progress towards his eventual return from a concussion. So who knows, maybe at some point in the not too distant future, the Penguins will have both of their stars play in the same game for the first time since January 5th.