It might just stand as the most bizarre duo of Penguins forwards to team up for a goal all season.
That's right, if you had Josh Archibald setting up Evgeni Malkin on your bingo card, you're in luck. Believe it or not, their hookup blazed the trail to an eventual 7-3 victory over the Lightning here at PPG Paints Arena Sunday night.
Malkin had just spent the previous two minutes as he sat in the sin bin for a tripping minor, but he made up for it in a big way upon being freed.
Take a look:
Electric factory.
It's funny because Malkin tends to fare very poorly whenever the Penguins hold shootout competitions during practice. In the most recent competition, he was the only skater on the team not to score and lost the whole thing. Yet, I'm not betting against him barreling in with that much time and space during an actual game.
The way he received the pass from Archibald was unconventional and simply outstanding at the same time. He dared to come in tight with dekes, but hesitated in between the circles and completely froze Brian Elliott before beating him five-hole.
How about that pass from Archibald, though? Wow. I've watched the replay about 100 times now, but I still see Archibald scanning up ice for Malkin only once. And it was well in advance of the pass actually being made. Spectacular -- or maybe just lucky -- to put that on the blade. Regardless, it's a heads-up play.
But for as great as the entire sequence was, I'm still holding out hope we get one more breakaway slap shot attempt from Malkin before he eventually hangs them up:
Maybe next time.
