PITTSBURGH -- Evgeni Malkin reached 500 NHL goals Wednesday, scoring for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 6-5 win against the Buffalo Sabres at PPG Paints Arena.
The 38-year-old is the 48th player in NHL history to hit the milestone and fourth active player to do so, joining Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin (853), longtime teammate and fellow center Sidney Crosby (593) and Nashville Predators forward Steven Stamkos (555).
"First of all, score two goals,” Malkin said Sept. 19, one day after Pittsburgh opened training camp. “Next two games. Not preseason, regular season. My goal all the time [is], like, four points every game. Team wins every game.”
The goal was Malkin’s second of the season; he has 11 points (nine assists) in five games after adding three assists against the Sabres.
Malkin hit the milestone at 3:26 of the third period, knocking in a rebound of his own shot while on his back on the ice, after diving to the net to take a backhand feed from Crosby along the boards.
Malkin is third on the Penguins goal list, behind Mario Lemieux (690) and Crosby. He is also third with 1,307 points (Lemieux, 1,723; Crosby, 1,602) and 807 assists (Lemieux, 1,033; Crosby, 1,009).
Selected No. 2 in the 2004 NHL Draft, Malkin has played 1,150 games, the second most for Pittsburgh, trailing Crosby (1,277).
“The milestones, those are things that you’re always going to remember, you’re always going to have,” Crosby, the Penguins captain, said Oct. 5. “It’s fun to be part of those. We know how close he is (to 500 goals).”
Malkin had 67 points (27 goals, 40 assists) last season, second on the Penguins to Crosby (94 points; 42 goals, 52 assists).
“It’s pretty incredible, what he’s accomplished,” said defenseman Kris Letang, who like Crosby has played with Malkin since 2006-07. “Obviously, he’s got the shot. He’s got everything.”
Malkin has won the Stanley Cup three times, the first in 2009 when he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists) in 24 games. He won back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017.
He won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL points leader for the first of two times with an NHL career-high 113 points (35 goals, 78 assists) in 2008-09. When Crosby missed 60 games because of concussion-related issues in 2011-12, Malkin led the League with 109 points and scored 50 goals for the only time to win the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP.
“My personality, it's like, 'Win every game,’” Malkin said. “It's what I do all my life.”
