Rotoworld Jul 7, 2014
Downie vows to protect Crosby, Malkin - Steve Downie (W) Pittsburgh Penguins
Steve Downie feels that part of his job with the Pittsburgh Penguins will be protecting Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
PensBurgh Jul 7, 2014
Did Malkin Defer to Neal?
We'll dig into the numbers to see if Malkin was deferring to Neal while he was with the Penguins. With James Neal gone, some people have argued that Evgeni Malkin will play better hockey since he won't defer to Neal as often. I'm curious how much (if at all) Malkin actually deferred to James Neal while he was here. We can figure this out by comparing Malkin's stats from 2007-2011 (before he played with Neal) to his stats from 2012-2014 (when he had Neal as his partner). I pulled the aggregate data from the Hockey Analysis database. I'm looking only at 5v5 play; Malkin deferring to Neal...
