The Last Malkin Post (For the Moment)
(Until It’s time for another one)

Okay, so Evgeni Malkin has arrived in North America. More specifically, young Mr. Malkin is now attending the Penguins rookie camp.

I’m going to refrain from speculation about the off-ice mess and circus surrounding Malkin. (Really, there are no better words than circus and mess to describe a general manager invoking phrases like "sports terrorism," among other threats.) For one, speculating about off-the-ice issues, such as potential legal actions by the Russians, is pointless. So I’ll set aside that off the ice idle speculation for the moment.

Instead, because this is a hockey blog, I’m going to focus my speculation on what Malkin’s arrival in North America means to the Penguins, assuming Malkin will be legally able to suit up in a Penguins jersey come opening night. In the midst of Malkin’s sojourn to the United States, and the ensuing interviews Malkin has given through an interpreter, several facts have become abundantly clear. Malkin desperately wants to play in the NHL. Malkin was under pressure—if not threats, then certainly pressure—to remain in Russia. Malkin is twenty-years-old and was listening to a bunch of people tell him several different things.

Among all those facts about Malkin—and they’re all relevant to the 2006-07 Pittsburgh Penguins—what is most salient is the fact that Malkin is a twenty-year-old kid who just arrived in a foreign country. While Malkin is used to being a star in Russia, he is going to have to adjust to the demands of the American media and become accustomed to American culture. He’s also going to have to learn English. Unlike Sidney Crosby, who came into the league at age eighteen speaking his native language and having been used to dealing with the media from the age of thirteen, Malkin is going to have to make off-the-ice adjustments. It’s the off-the-ice adjustments that the Penguins management and Penguins fans are going to have to keep in mind throughout the 2006-07 season.

For a moment, think back over the years to various players who’ve arrived from Europe or Russia. Think back on their first seasons in the NHL. For every player who took the NHL by storm while learning a foreign language and adjusting to a new culture, there are certainly more players who struggled at least a few times, and possibly more than just a few times, that first season. Learning the NHL game can be a transition enough, but couple that with everything going on off the ice, too? No matter how much money a player is making, the transition is never without struggle. Sure, Penguins fans all remember Jaromir Jagr’s pretty playoff goals during the 1991 Stanley Cup run, but Pens fans might forget that Jagr didn’t begin to settle in comfortably in Pittsburgh until Jiri Hrdina arrived in December of 1990.

Which brings me to Sergei Gonchar. Moan as Penguins fans might about Gonchar’s defensive lapses, etc, Gonchar’s most important role on the Penguins this season has absolutely nothing to do with quarterbacking the power play, killing penalties, or even teaching the young defensemen. No, this year Gonchar’s main responsibility, on and off the ice, is going to have to be Evgeni Malkin. Gonchar is going to have to serve as mentor, friend, counselor, and translator for Malkin. Sure, Penguins fans, if they want, have the right to fuss at Gonchar for subpar defensive play. But I, for one, am going to withhold my fussing at Gonchar so long as Gonchar is doing his job (on the ice and off the ice) in helping Malkin adjust to the NHL game and to North America. So long as Malkin is producing and beginning to adjust and perhaps showing signs of flourishing, and so long as Malkin credits Gonchar for helping him out, well, guess what, I’ll just have to deal with an occasional boneheaded Gonchar play.

I’m aware of the fact that I’m a cynical person, and Pens fans who saw Crosby and Ovechkin take the NHL by storm last year might wonder why I’m so insistent about "lowering expectations," so to speak, for Evgeni Malkin. The cynical side of my brain asks, Do you remember who the last Penguin to be called the best player in the world not yet in the NHL was? Yes, folks, that was one Aleksey Morozov, currently the reigning MVP of the RSL but never a dominant or consistently even a very good player in the NHL. Of course the logical side of my brain knows that Malkin plays a very different style of game than Morozov, a game that is far more suited to the NHL than Morozov’s. I also saw Malkin more than hold his own against NHL players in the past winter Olympics. Yet the logical and cynical sides of my brain still meet and cry out, "Please don’t expect this kid to be perfect right away!"

Because that’s the thing. In all the interviews, in every quote that’s come out of newspapers, what stands out is that Malkin is still a kid. An extremely talented kid who’s going to have to adjust to North American ice and North American culture. Sure, hopefully Malkin’s talented enough to "just be himself" on the ice surface when everything off the ice is new.

Yet a fact holds for Penguins coaches, Penguins players, and Penguins fans, and that’s this: Be patient with this kid.
Hopefully we won’t need patience. Hopefully Malkin repeats what Ovechkin did last year, in a way that’s unique to his particular skill set.
But if he doesn’t do that immediately—be patient. That advice has to go to Coach Therrien and Sergei Gonchar as well as other Penguins players.

Less than two years after he arrived in North America, Jaromir Jagr took over the Rangers series after Adam Graves slashed Mario Lemieux’s hand. Sure, Pens fans had previously seen what Jagr could do—but not the way we saw it in that series. So guess what, really, if I’m expecting Evgeni Malkin to turn out to be as good or better than Jaromir Jagr, I really don’t have low expectations. I have high expectations. I’m just saying, don’t be surprised, angry, or impatient if those high expectations aren’t immediately fulfilled in the 2006-07 season.

Celebrate if immediate success comes, of course, but if not, well…just know that time eventually brought us Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in the prime of their careers.
Take time to wait on Malkin to become what his decision to leave Russia shows he wants to be—a dominant NHL player.