Pittsburgh defeated Philadelphia 7:0 in the opening NHL match, Malkin scored a goal and reached a historical milestone

“Pittsburgh” beat “Philadelphia” with a big score in the opening match of the NHL championship. One of the main heroes of the Penguins' success was Evgeni Malkin. The celebrated Russian striker achieved a number of powerful achievements in one fell swoop.

Bitter rivals

The new National Hockey League season has officially begun. The day before, at the start of the regular season, five matches took place, including with the participation of the best clubs of the last few Stanley Cup draws: the champions of the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons, the Florida Panthers, beat the current holders of the main NHL trophy, the Carolina Hurricanes, with a minimum score of 1:0, scoring the only puck in the match a few seconds before the end of overtime.

Also, the start of the regular season was marked by the debuts of Sergei Bobrovsky and Kirill Marchenko for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the first game of Roman Kantserov in the NHL, the offensive defeat of Igor Shesterkin and the first Russian goal of the new season, scored by Vasily Podkolzin, who scored a double. But the real heat happened on the second day of the championship.

The confrontation between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers is one of the most important in the NHL. Matches between these sworn enemies always stand out for their fierce fighting and uncompromising nature. Their meeting in the first match of the new season for both teams already had a high intensity even before the opening face-off, but it had additional heating due to emotions that, several months later, had not yet had time to go out completely. In April, “Pittsburgh” and “Philadelphia” had a crazy series in the first round of the playoffs, during which Penguins leader Sidney Crosby, the object of the greatest hatred for Flyers fans, was hit hard. The Penguins almost saved that series, nearly coming back from 0-3 down, but ended their cup campaign after conceding a goal at the end of the first overtime of game six.

Notable slap in the face from Pittsburgh

The Penguins did not need any revanchist sentiments to give a great fight today in the arena of their main rivals. Just entering the new season with a victory was enough motivation. Pittsburgh coped with this task: Dan Muse's team won the Pennsylvania Derby with a large score of 7:0. Already in the first period, the Pens scored two goals, scored by Nicholas Robertson and Ville Koivunen. Pittsburgh's first goal was notable; Crosby was directly involved in it.

The Canadian, who set a new NHL record for the longest game as captain of a league club (20 consecutive seasons), was hit by a powerful force move shortly before the goal, collapsing epically to the ice. However, the 39-year-old forward instantly got to his feet and joined in the fast positional attack, eventually assisting Robertson's goal.

© Eric Hartline Episode of the Philadelphia Flyers - Pittsburgh Penguins match

© Eric Hartline

Episode of the match "Philadelphia Flyers" - "Pittsburgh Penguins"

In the second period, the Pens put an end to all questions about the outcome of the match. In the period from the 25th to the 31st minutes, the guests from Pittsburgh scored three more unanswered goals: Russian striker Evgeni Malkin, Hendrix Lapierre and Philip Hollander scored. The remaining time of the match was a matter of technique - the Penguins needed to not lose their advantage and bring the game to victory, which they did excellently. In the third period, Muse's team not only kept their goal intact, but also, thanks to Robertson's efforts, scored in the minority, bringing the score to tennis level. Another Russian in the Pens camp, Yegor Chinakhov, put the finishing touches on the match by technically correcting the puck during the power play.

Malkin writes a new story

For Evgeni Malkin, as a Pittsburgh legend, every meeting with Philadelphia is special. But in addition to the degree of integrity, the Flyers remain a unique opponent for the Russian striker for the reason that in head-to-head matches with the Flyers, Gino is very effective.

© AP Photo / Matt SlocumEvgeni Malkin

© AP Photo/Matt Slocum

Evgeniy Malkin

Malkin celebrated today's derby with a goal, becoming the second Russian hockey player after Podkolzin to score a goal in the new NHL season. At the beginning of the second period, during a power play, Evgeniy Vladimirovich responded to Lapierre’s pass and made a great touch from within the slot zone and the left throw-in circle. The puck, after a magnificent shot from Gino, flew into the far upper corner of the goal.

For Malkin, this goal was the 534th of his career in the NHL championships. The Russian forward took clear 36th place in the list of the best snipers in the history of the league, displacing Frank Mahovlich from this position. Of the 534 goals, the Pittsburgh legend scored seven in his team's starting games in the NHL regular season (in total, Malkin scored 19 points in 19 starting matches). According to this indicator, the Russian rose to second place in the history of the club, above only Crosby (9 goals).

In addition, Evgeni Malkin, thanks to the goal, reached 100 points (33 goals and 67 assists) in 81 full-time matches against Philadelphia in the NHL championships. No other franchise in the league suffers more often at the hands of Gino. Only the New York Islanders are nearby: in 84 games with the Islanders, the Russian scored 97 points (37+60). Malkin now joins powerful company as the Penguins forward became only the sixth player in NHL history to score 100 or more points against the Flyers, following Crosby (140 points), Mario Lemieux (124), Jaromir Jagr (120), Brian Trottier (117) and the great Wayne Gretzky (100).

© REUTERS / Eric HartlineEvgeniy Malkin (in the background)

© REUTERS/Eric Hartline

Evgeni Malkin (in the background)

The last season of Malkin's career?

The fate of Evgeni Malkin's further cooperation with Pittsburgh was one of the main epics during the previous season. In May, the parties closed the matter and agreed to a new one-year contract with the player's base salary of $5.5 million. But will this agreement be Gino's last?

Malkin himself trained very hard last off-season, and before the start of the season he admitted that, despite his 40 years, he feels a lot of strength and desire to play at the highest level. Evgeniy has repeatedly noted that he intends to play in the NHL for as long as possible. Club general manager Kyle Dubas chose not to say whether the Penguins are willing to sign another contract with the Russian veteran at the end of the season and avoided answering the question. As for the option of Gino returning to Russia, his native Magnitogorsk Metallurg would be very happy to see his star pupil in the ranks of the team.

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“His return to his home club would be very interesting for our fans. This would be an event on a universal scale. This would be great from the point of view of achieving sports results. Malkin has proven that he is a top NHL player. Accordingly, he will be like that in the KHL. I wanted Evgeniy to play for Metallurg again. If we talk about his return next summer, we will first wait for his own desire. It will come from this. “We reacted normally to the fact that he decided to stay for one year in the NHL,” Magnitogorsk director Alexei Zhloba answered RIA Novosti’s question.