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Ok, I was covering high school hockey last night and missed the Penguins 2-1 victory over the surprisingly (over the season, rather than individual game) good Phoenix Coyotes.
But based on what I read and saw in the highlights, it was mostly Marc-Andre Fleury making tons of saves...
...Zbynek Michalek continuing the welcome trend of everyone getting in on the scoring...
...and Matt Cooke -- again -- being punished for being Matt Cooke.
Did I miss anything?
Something worth noting is Evgeni Malkin logging 19:03 of ice time, the fourth time in the last 11 games that he's logged under 20 minutes on the ice. After spending most of December under 20 minutes a night, Malkin only logged under 20 minutes once in 18 games between Dec. 29 and and Feb. 7.
If I tried to read into this in any way, shape or form, I'd assume that the aforementioned uptick in secondary scoring and return of Jordan Staal is allowing Dan Bylsma to not need to rely on Malkin quite as much as he was when the Penguins were essentially doing all of their scoring with one line. By keeping Malkin under that magic number "20," he can at least try to keep him fresh through a very hectic March schedule and the playoffs immediately follow it.