Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis only need to look across the ice to see what everyone else wants to see from them — how a star is supposed to perform in the playoffs.
While the Rangers’ big names once again looked lost Wednesday night in their 4-2 loss to the Penguins to go down 3-1 in their second-round series, Evgeni Malkin was marvelous, as he scored the game’s opening goal and finished with a game-sealing assist.
In between, he routinely made the Rangers look five days late and hundreds of dollars short, seemingly stretching the gulf in talent with each possession.
“You try not to get too amazed because you don’t want to stand there and watch,” said Sidney Crosby, who also had an assist, “but there’s no doubt, just the fact that he’s so big and he’s fast and he’s hard to knock off it, you just try and support him all over the ice.
“You know he’s either going to try and beat a guy or if you’re close to him, he’s going to try and draw someone. You just try and find space. The biggest thing is to just support him and you try not to watch him because it’s easy to do sometimes.”
With Malkin and Crosby playing together all night, the two superstars needed less than three minutes to first make their mark, sucking the life out of Madison Square Garden before the seats had filled.
After firing a beautiful cross-ice pass to Crosby in front of the net, Malkin found himself back with the puck on a return pass from Crosby, which slipped past Marc Staal. The 2009 Conn Smythe Trophy winner spun and fired a backhand past Henrik Lundqvist 2:33 into the game, on the Penguins’ first shot. It was Malkin’s fifth goal of the playoffs — all coming in the past five games — and second of the series, also marking his eighth goal in his past 12 games at the Garden.
Even if the game were far from over, it felt fairly close to over, with the Rangers’ scoreless streak eventually running past 145 minutes.
“When I get it, it’s not like I necessarily have to look for him,” Crosby said. “I think he’s just in the right spot when you get it.” Just knowing he’s going to draw guys and he’s able to possess the puck for that long and maybe bring that extra guy to him it opens up some space. He definitely will find those areas and get himself open pretty well.”
Even when Malkin was surrounded, he would keep getting open, splitting defenders and showcasing a wondrous blend of finesse and power, put on display for a crowd which could only envy the talent that was too much to match.
When the Rangers cut the deficit to one in the third period, Malkin responded, finding Chris Kunitz in front with a backhand pass, assisting on what may be the series-swaying goal, with less than six minutes left, and just 57 seconds after Mats Zuccarello’s goal.
“To have [Malkin], [Crosby], and [Kunitz] playing the way they did tonight, being a force, they’re tough to deal with,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said of his first line. “It’s good to have.”
Most don’t have it.