Evgeni Malkin is doing his best to make sure no one ever comes close to catching him on the Penguins' all-time penalty minutes leaderboard.
When the Penguins hosted and beat the Flyers, 4-2, here at PPG Paints Arena Sunday, Malkin broke a personal record of his, as well as a single-game record for the 2022-23 season.
He managed to take three minor penalties during the second period, but that wasn't either record. Early in the third period, he took a fourth minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Malkin was so irate that he started grilling the referees on his way to the sin bin for the fourth time of the evening. It effectively got him booted from the game:
The call on the ice was a 10-minute misconduct for Malkin, but he was actually served a game misconduct, as well. The four minors and misconducts totaled up to 28 penalty minutes, which is more than any NHLer has recorded in any game this season.
That mark also shattered Malkin's previous career-high in penalty minutes, which was 16, dating back to Dec. 2, 2014 at home against the Devils.
"He had an exchange with the referees, the referees didn’t like it," Mike Sullivan explained. "He got a stick in the face and they didn’t see it. My sense is that he was upset because he got three minor penalties — one of which was a high stick — and then when he gets high-sticked, they didn’t see it.
"He’s obviously an emotional guy. His emotions got the best of him in that circumstance. Geno and I will have a conversation about that. He’s got to do a better job controlling his emotions because we need him."
