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Evgeni Malkin is a special player and he just hit a special milestone with his 1,000th NHL career point tonight against the Washington Capitals.
Malkin accomplished this feat in 848 career games. That puts him getting to 1,000 points squarely in between his two most compared contemporaries - teammate Sidney Crosby got to 1k in 757 games, while countryman and fellow 2004 draftee Alex Ovechkin scored his career 1,000th point in 880 career games.
Fittingly enough, Geno did it in front of both of them in the Penguins/Capitals game. The event made even more fitting since Ovechkin recorded HIS 1,000th point also against the Pens, so it’s just a big circle of milestones exchanged by the most dynamic offensive player of this generation.
At 1.18 points/game, Malkin is the second most prolific point scorer of this generation, behind only Crosby (1.29). His 848 games to get to 1,000 is the second fast among active players in the NHL, and the 88th overall to do so.
Point number 1,000 was actually the second of the game for Malkin, who picked up a jazzy assist for #999 combining with Phil Kessel and Crosby on a beauty of a power play goal.
This is just a work of art. pic.twitter.com/C4Sjikk9aD
— PensBurgh (@Pensburgh) March 13, 2019
The milestone would come in the third period, again on the power play on Phil Kessel’s goal to make the game a 4-2 lead for Pittsburgh.
"It's one of the best nights of my life. It's a special day for my family, my friends. I played hockey all my life... It's a special day."#Ma1Kin discusses his milestone: https://t.co/VpukDndN2m pic.twitter.com/PdrZJNq3C1
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 13, 2019
Malkin’s next major milestone is being a handful of goals away from 400 in his career. One of the cool things about Sid and Geno advancing deeper into their careers is they get to these big moments and you can really look back and get a sense of all their achievements. From scoring titles to MVP’s to Conn Smythe’s and of course the three Stanley Cups, what a marvelous career we’ve been able to witness.