Evgeni Malkin is approaching major milestones with the Pittsburgh Penguins
Photo credit: Donald Wright-USA Today sports
Pittsburgh Penguins legend Evgeni Malkin is looking to join Alex Ovechkin as the only Russian-born players in NHL history to reach massive milestones.
The New York Rangers will visit PPG Paints Arena to kick off the 2024-25 Penguins season. The Rangers and Penguins will play each other in their 300th regular season game tonight. The Rangers have an all-time record of 41-42-13-1 in season openers, with victories in three of the previous five.
When it comes to home openers, or the first home game of the season, Pittsburgh is 30-16-10 all-time. They have also gone 7-3-1 in their last ten meetings.
As Malkin enters tonight's game, he is only two goals away from becoming the 48th player in NHL history to reach 500 goals in his career. When Malkin hits that mark, he'll become one of only four active players with 500 or more goals: Teammate Sidney Crosby (592), Alex Ovechkin (853), and Steven Stamkos (555) of Tampa Bay. Malkin will be the 20th player in NHL history to score 500 goals with a single team. With 498 goals in 1,145 games, he has the third-most goals in Penguins history.
Malkin mentioned center Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, a longtime teammate who had just eight days earlier scored his 500th goal. Malkin was awarded the lone assist.
"He deserves everything," Malkin said then. "Every goal he scores, I'm glad to give him assists. Great memory for me, for sure. I hope someday, he can give me an assist on my 500th goal."
With Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh will join the Montreal Canadiens (Guy Lafleur, Jean Beliveau, and Maurice Richard) as the only teams in NHL history with three 500-goal scorers.
Malkin will become the second player in NHL history to be born in Russia, after Ovechkin to score 500 goals.
"I'm still hungry, I still want to win every game," Malkin said. "Again, my goal is, like, one, two points every game."
Malkin is not only two goals short of 500, but he is also two assists away from 800 and four points short of 1,300. Malkin will become the 34th player in NHL history to reach the 800-assist mark after he records his next two assists. The only other active players with 800 assists are Sidney Crosby (1,004) and Patrick Kane (813). He hopes to join them. In addition, he will become the first player in NHL history to be born in Russia to accomplish this feat.
"My personality, it's like, 'Win every game.' It's what I do all my life," Malkin said. "The last two seasons, it's not fun. When you lost, you're not in the playoffs, it's not great for the city, not great for the fans."
With their upcoming 19th season together, Malkin, Crosby, and Letang will have the longest tenure of any trio in the history of major professional sports in North America.
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