Evgeni Malkin has spent two decades declining to speak to reporters after the Pittsburgh Penguins‘ morning skates. It’s one of the more reliable fixtures of the Pittsburgh media routine, and it has held since his rookie year in 2006.
On Monday morning he walked over and started talking.
The reason was Alex Ovechkin, who had just told his teammates and then the world that the 2026-27 season will be his last. Malkin had something he wanted to say about it.
“It’s hard because he’s legend, fans love him,” Malkin said, per Penguins reporter Michelle Crechiolo. “He’s done everything for team, for league. I hope he play good this year, no injury. He just stay healthy, score goals, and enjoy the game.”
Why doesn’t Evgeni Malkin talk after morning skates?
The habit goes back to the start of his career, and the origin story attached to it is that he picked it up from Sergei Gonchar, the veteran Russian defenseman who took him under his wing when he arrived in Pittsburgh. Gonchar housed Malkin, translated for him and shepherded him through his first NHL seasons, so inheriting a superstition from him tracks, though the Gonchar detail has only been reported secondhand.
Whatever its source, Malkin has stuck to it long enough that breaking it registered as news in itself.
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The connection between the two men runs back to before either played an NHL game. Ovechkin went first overall in the 2004 draft and Malkin second, and they have spent 20 years being measured against one another from opposite ends of the same rivalry. Ovechkin’s announcement came exactly 21 years to the day after his NHL debut, with 929 goals and 1,575 games behind him.
Malkin won’t have to wait long to see him. The Capitals host the Penguins at Capital One Arena on Wednesday, in what will now be one of a dwindling number of meetings between a rivalry that has defined two decades of hockey.
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