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The Penguins got by without Evgeni Malkin during his three-week absence due to a lower-body injury, fashioning a perfectly respectable 4-1-2 record.
They probably couldn't have gotten by without him Tuesday night.
Malkin returned to the lineup and had a goal and an assist, Sidney Crosby recorded his 999th career point and the Penguins came away with a 4-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
The Penguins are 5-0-2 in their past seven games.
About five minutes into the second period, after the Penguins watched countless tantalizing scoring chances go awry, Malkin struck to break a scoreless tie.
Malkin posted up on defenseman Luca Sbisa at the top of the crease like Karl Malone staking out his territory in the paint. Olli Maatta faked a shot from the left circle and fed Malkin, who kicked the puck forward then tapped it with his stick before it crossed the goal line.
In the third period, Malkin danced around Sbisa and defense partner Christopher Tanev to set up Phil Kessel for a goal on a two-on-one break.
A few minutes earlier, Crosby moved within one point of 1,000 for his career.
Jake Guentzel took a pass high in the offensive zone, skated toward the slot and passed to Crosby on the goal line in the right-wing corner. Crosby got it right back to Guentzel for a goal.
The assist snapped a two-game drought for Crosby and moved him into a tie with Edmonton's Connor McDavid for the league scoring lead with 61 points.
Coming into the game, the teams got different news on the injury front.
The Canucks found out they would be without two of their top three centers, leading scorer Bo Horvat and former Penguin Brandon Sutter, due to injury.
That left them with a woefully thin group of forwards. They were lacking in quantity, dressing 11 to go with seven defensemen, and they were lacking in quality, with Henrik and Daniel Sedin the only two of their top five scorers in the lineup.
The Penguins, meanwhile, welcomed back Malkin after a seven-game absence.
After morning skate, Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said he thought Malkin wanted to make his return Saturday night in Phoenix, and therefore would be shot out of a cannon Tuesday after spending a couple of extra days caged up.
He was right. Malkin galloped through the neutral zone and buzzed around the net for much of his first few shifts. His Penguins teammates looked dangerous too, outshooting the Canucks, 15-9, in the first period, engineering more than a few quality scoring chances.
Ryan Miller held his ground, however, making a handful of saves with various parts of his anatomy.
Most notably, when Crosby made a cross-ice pass to Guentzel for a one-timer from the bottom of the right faceoff circle with about seven minutes left in the period, Miller lunged to his left and got enough of his arm on the puck to send it wide of the post.
Not to be outdone, Penguins goalie Matt Murray frustrated the Canucks as well.
In the first period, Murray stopped shots from Jack Skille and Jannik Hansen on odd-man rushes.
In the second period, he made his most memorable stop of the night. Off a defensive-zone faceoff win, Loui Eriksson took off up the left wing on a two-on-one. He threaded a pass through to Skille, but Murray gloved down the shot to keep the Canucks scoreless with less than four minutes left in the second period.
The Penguins continued to play without wingers Bryan Rust, Carl Hagelin and Conor Sheary due to injury. In their absence, they dressed a particularly young lineup, with recent call-up Josh Archibald joining Carter Rowney and Tom Kuhnhackl on the fourth line. Eric Fehr was scratched to make room for Malkin.