Evgeni Malkin played just three games last week but, man, he made the most of them.
Malkin scored six goals and had two assists between Jan. 28 and Feb. 4 to earn the NHL's First Star of the week honors. For many players, that's a good month. And Malkin is coming off a good one of those, too. He had already been named player of the month for January.
Included in Malkin's recent stretch was a three-goal game on Jan. 30 against the Sharks, the 14th hat trick of his career and 12th in the regular season:
"He’s so hot right now, you just want to get him the puck," said Justin Schultz.
Malkin's two goals against the Capitals last Friday night gave him multiple goals in three consecutive games, becoming only the third Penguins player in the last quarter-century to do that. The others are Jaromir Jagr and Sidney Crosby.
Malkin will carry a four-game goal-scoring streak into Tuesday night's game against the Golden Knights at PPG Paints Arena.
With 60 points on the season, the Russian is fourth in the NHL scoring race, trailing only the Lightning's Nikita Kucherov (66), teammate Phil Kessel (63) and the Avalanche's Nathan MacKinnon (61).
