Analysis: Evgeni Malkin Hat Trick vs OTT
In last night's Kraft Hockeyville showdown between the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins, Evgeni Malkin scored a hat trick in route to Pittsburgh's 5-2 win over the Senators. Today, we'll take a look at what stood out on his hat trick, and break down each goal by sequence to get a better understanding of the developing play:
On Malkin's strong side spot on the power play, he always thrives from there since he is able to use his size and prowess to gain an extra step on defenders when necessary. His big strength is being able to use his size and shot to his advantage, creating offensive chances out of nothing and being able to generate chances with power.
Here, the first goal isn't entirely noticeable, but notice Malkin's positioning and how he is able to maintain it throughout the zone. Malkin doesn't get caught excessively rotating high nor too low to be a puck support option in small areas, rather maintains his positioning up high, allowing the puck to come back naturally to him. He doesn't chase the puck down or use energy to try and go after it here, but knowing that Malkin is in space and has positional leverage to have an open shot lane here, the puck eventually finds its way back to him.
Sometimes, players can get easily scrambled and lost away from the play, especially on the power play with rotating coverage, but Malkin is well aware of this and maintains his positioning and focus on where the puck is getting worked to. Knowing that he is still an option in space on the faceoff circle area, he doesn't need to move very far here. Also, he is able to be a weak side space outlet here, since the strong side of the play was getting collapsed on by multiple Ottawa and Pittsburgh players, freeing up more space for Malkin to maneuver on the faceoff circle area.
On the "shot attempt," notice how Malkin isn't looking for the shot right away. Realizing Crosby is open as a potential tipping option and that Ottawa's coverage is rotating and drawn out of position, Malkin tries a shot pass flat on the ice to Crosby, which ends up bouncing wildly into the air and into the net, oddly enough. However, the idea from Malkin initially was to find Crosby either for a deflection or for a pass by doing a slap pass flat on the ice, which would give Crosby two options:
Either way, it would've been a great option since Malkin had a great idea by providing that slap pass. Didn't go through, but either way he still scored.
For the second goal, we see that come around 53 seconds into the video here. Off a really nice slap pass from Rickard Rakell to find Malkin in weak side space, Malkin retrieves the puck, handles it, and utilizes multiple details to get across the defenseman:
What is really noticeable about this is how Malkin quickly shifts the weight interior, and then quickly leans into the shot to get pure power and accuracy on the shot here. He does a great job utilizing his quick hands and dynamic posture to change the angle in how he attacked the defenseman, and then was able to quickly get the shot off for the goal.
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The last goal came around 1:41 here, which wasn't flashy since it was an empty netter, but I wanted to note some details on the check and angle he had to strip this puck from Batherson clean:
It wasn't much the goal that was noticeable, but more so the defensive details and checking details that went into Malkin's ability to get this puck free in the first place.
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