I'd been chatting with Kris Letang in the locker room. He glanced across at Evgeni Malkin, who was seated at his stall for an interview with a Russian reporter, and shook his head slightly before observing, almost under his breath, "It’s like it was in the script."
That's the impact those players can have, my friends. Those truly special players. The type who can leave even a 17-year teammate awestruck.
As well as all the rest of us ...
My goodness. What a moment. What magic.
Penguins 2, Flames 1, via shootout.
Geno with the evening-ending winner.
Because of course.
And by the time the traditionally thunderous Thanksgiving Eve crowd had turned from leaping and shouting for all 100 feet of his skate down the rink, sizing up Calgary's Dan Vladar, by the time he found the top of the twine with that backhander of that bent blade of his, by the time they broke into a ceiling-rattling chant of 'GE-NO! GE-NO!' and by the time they mustered one last roar as he concluded his postgame on-ice TV interview with, 'I love you guys, always!' ... the scene was among the most emotional -- no, sentimental -- I can recall experiencing inside PPG Paints Arena.
Yeah, sentimental sounds better.
Because, really, as much as fun as it's been to see these Penguins pop their heads from the figurative sand and rattle off this 6-1-1 roll and four-game winning streak, I'll bet not a soul among the 18,149 on hand had been focused on two points against some random Western opponent vs. ... well, how it'd ultimately wind up for a beloved adopted son.
Certainly seemed it was felt.
"I think it's an amazing life," Geno'd share afterward in his inimitable English. "I'm excited. I'm so nervous. I've had lots of special moments in my life. This was an amazing night for me, for my family. Thank you to my teammates. Especially to the Pittsburgh organization. ... I have, like, no words for this night. It's amazing."
Amazing's an appropriate adjective. For all of it.
The pregame ceremony commemorating his 1,000th game Sunday night in Chicago saw his wife Anna and nattily attired son Nikita joining two other longtime acquaintances on the ice ...
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, wife Anna, son Nikita before the game Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena.
... and was followed by video tributes from parents Vladimir and Natalia, to his older brother Denis, all in Russia. And from Letang and Sidney Crosby, of course. And from Marc-Andre Fleury. And from fellow Russian stars Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk. And from a Ukrainian, Ruslan Fedotenko, his first championship linemate and still a "friend," per his message, in this terrible time for his country.
Maybe best of all, the Penguins flew in Sergei Gonchar to attend this game as the finale of a string of stuff they'd sprung on him since the weekend.
"It's a surprise. I didn't know he's coming, just like I didn't know they were flying my wife and son to Chicago," Geno'd say of Gonchar. "The last three days, I'm crying every day."
It's the kind of class we've long come to expect from this franchise.
And yet, as ever with Geno, it's about what happens on the ice.
In Vladimir's message, like a proud papa, he beamed right off the bat about his boy's hockey prowess: "You have played at such an elite level."
In Denis' message: "For me, you have always been and always will be one of the best players in the world."
Right. He's a hockey player. He's been that since childhood in the Russian steeltown of Magnitogorsk. He's been that through the trials he endured to break free from Russian constraints to reach the NHL. He's been that through his early Pittsburgh upbringing in Gonchar's home. He's been that now through 1,001 regular-season games, 452 goals, 1,166 points, plus everything he put into all three Stanley Cups.
And, not coincidentally, he stayed first and foremost a hockey player over these past few days, scoring in the 1,000th game in Chicago, then again in this infinitely more energized setting.
So yeah, let's talk hockey, beginning with a couple slo-mo looks:
"When Guentz shoot and not score, I think, 'Oh, maybe fake it and use my backhand,' " Geno'd recall of his mindset after Vladar's save on Jake Guentzel's forehand snapper followed similar -- albeit successful -- approaches by Rickard Rakell and Sid. "Because he's big and I think he's looking for the first shot. I try to fake it a little bit. My backhand is not perfect, I have a big curve. But I say, like, 'Uh, why not?' "
Why not, indeed?
Vladar's not only big -- 6 feet, 6 inches even when he's out of skates -- but also a bear to face when he's as sharp as he was on this night, stopping 38 of 39 shots in regulation. It was probably smart to mix it up.
But Geno's preemptive choice to use his backhand, while sound in strategy because he'd be the first trying it, also came with risk since, as he noted, his blade's built with a wicked hook that's seldom friendly for backhanders, unlike Sid's famously flat blade.
Watch how Geno mitigated that:
Vladar bites a bit on the forehand deke, but he does well to extend his left leg all the way over to the pipe, thus requiring Geno to find the roof faster than a fireman in a blazing building. Which he does, if watching what's above closely, by moving the puck to the middle of that big curve, where the blade's still somewhat straight, making damned it's where it needs to be, and only then elevating.
"I thought I had it," Vladar would say. "I don't know if it hit my pad or my glove, but it went over, top-shelf."
He'd then acknowledge that the boisterous environment in Malkin's favor might've made a difference.
"Good for him. Great player. He deserves that," Vladar would say of the ceremony, before adding with a small laugh, "but he could've saved it for the next game."
Nah. That wouldn't have sufficed. Because unless I'm missing something in parsing Vladar's remarks, he might've felt the same storybook sense of inevitability, at least afterward, to what'd just occurred.
I asked Letang if he knew Geno'd score.
"Oh, yeah."
And I asked Danton Heinen:
"Yeah, you have a feeling," he'd reply. "It's kind of the script there. It's meant to be. That guy wants the puck on his stick in those moments."
I asked Mike Sullivan, too, and his answer ... wow, very much caught me off-guard:
"I don't usually watch the guys when they're going down," he'd reply with a sheepish grin, referencing shootout attempts in general. I'd never realized that, but video confirms that, on Geno's attempt, he had his eyes down at a tablet showing his list of available participants. "I watch it when I go back to my office on video. On the bench, I just listen to the crowd. I've always been like that since I've been coaching the Penguins."
That's ... pretty cool, right? For a head coach of any team to confess that?
Anyway, Sullivan obviously had more to offer.
"Geno, he's got the ability to elevate his game when the stakes are high. I think that's where players build their legacies. "He's not afraid of it. He gets excited about it. And for me, that's what separates him and some of our other guys from others. He's a generational talent, and he's ultra-competitive. It couldn't have been a more fitting end."
Sid seemed almost as moved as Geno by all this, and not just in this game but for the better part of a week now.
"You wouldn't want anyone else with the opportunity to win the game," the captain would say. "The whole night was awesome, the whole day ... the last few days, to be honest. Awesome finish. Happy to see him roof it and get the winner. And the fans were extra good tonight."
See, this is the part I appreciate most, having covered both of these extraordinary individuals over their entire careers: Their relationship is such that, for as much as Geno welcomes Sid always being most prominent in the public, for as much as Sid respects Geno's stance on that ... Sid's consistently found subtle ways to make sure Geno gets his own due. Sometimes, that'll be pumping him up. Sometimes, that'll be scoring the winner in Chicago to ensure that 1,000th game was a W, or crushing a wicked shootout wrister on this night that set the stage ...
... but he's always deferred just enough to ensure Pittsburghers applaud having both of them.
This was Geno's stage. This was the city's chance to single him out for affection. And the city rose to the occasion in the same manner it rose to its collective feet time and again for No. 71.
Check out this on-ice video/audio for the realest feel anyone can achieve without having been here:
SWARM GENO! pic.twitter.com/9DoTk9urpt
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 24, 2022
Again, amazing's the adjective.
Darryl Sutter, Calgary's venerable coach and long a grounding old-school voice for this great sport, might've summed it all up more sweetly than anyone.
"That's the best part of our game, right? The honesty of our game," he'd say. "They have a night for the guy, and he ends up winning it for them. Good for him."
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Evgeni Malkin's backhander beats the Flames' Dan Vladar in the shootout Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins C
2. Tristan Jarry, Penguins G
3. Dan Vladar, Flames G
THE INJURIES
• No one. For real. Four games in a row now.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and defense pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn-Jeff Carter-Danton Heinen
Ryan Poehling-Teddy Blueger-Josh Archibald
Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang
P.O Joseph-Jeff Petry
Brian Dumoulin-Jan Rutta
And for Sutter's Flames:
Adam Ruzicka-Elias Lindholm-Tyler Toffoli
Dillon Dube-Nazem Kadri-Andrew Mangiapane
Jonathan Huberdeau-Mikael Backlund-Blake Coleman
Milan Lucic-Trevor Lewis-Kevin Rooney
Noah Hanifin-Rasmus Andersson
Nikita Zadorov-MacKenzie Weegar
Dennis Gilbert-Chris Tanev
THE SCHEDULE
Practice on Thanksgiving? Sure, why not? There's a session set for 11 a.m. Thursday in Cranberry, after which there's a charter flight set for the game Friday in Philadelphia. Danny Shirey has the practice, and Taylor Haase has the trip.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
