Welcome to the first edition of Fan Take Friday where we react to your hot takes! Before Hunter and Patrick get into your takes, we start with the stunning upset of Team Canada at the hands of Denmark at the World Championships on Thursday. Then, it’s time to react to some takes. First, if you could go back in time, knowing what you know how, who would you take: Alex Ovechkin or Evgeni Malkin? They then discuss Geno’s favorite goal, some offseason shenanigans, and so much more!
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21 Comments
Malkin over Ovechkin everyday of the week. No way in hell would I swap the two if I could. It wouldn't matter if Ovie scores another 1000 goals.
Booooo these men. I just threw a dozen eggs at both of you. Boooooo!
Individually Ovechkin but for the fit on the pens, Malkin all day long. The strength of this team was always the mismatch having 2 #1 centers and having strength down the middle of the ice.
Favorite geno goal was in the playoffs against Carolina spinning back hand short side over the shoulder. That or against the flyers in the playoffs coming out of the box on the break away, wind up and smashing it past their goalie with brute force.
I'd take Ovi as well. Yes, it was Root Sports almost positive.
Im pretty sure the call was on Root sports.
They took over after Consol Energy Centre was open
Hot take: Hallander impresses and scores 20 goals this coming season.
Where do we submit hot takes if not on here?
Malkin gets very disrespected even among Penguins fans. The truth is that without him the Penguins may not have won a single SC. In 09 he leads in playoff points playing with Talbot and Fedotenko (while Crosby had the 2 wingers the pens traded for during the season), in 16 he was one point away from Crosby, while playing basically in the 3rd line, as the Crosby and HBK lines had the best wingers. In 17 while playing with Kessel again, he led the playoff in points. Very underrated, could have easily at least 2 conn smythes. And as we saw this season, he frequently gets deployed with bottom 6 wingers, and still manages to produce offense.
Sure, Ovie had a more flashy career, had more goals. But overall Malkin did it better, more consistently. Averaged more points, did better in long playoff runs. And the Penguins blue print for winning SC was always to put him with whatever wingers they had available, and he made sure the line wasg good pretty much by himself. Would never trade him for ovie, and the Penguins would not have won as many cups with ovie instead of him. We have seen time and time again that Crosby does just fine on his own, but the success is when the Pens had other lines that also produced, and Malkin was usually the one making it happen by making mediocre wingers look like top 6 players.
I do get your guys takes on their play styles between Malkin and ovi. Theres so many other questions about that as well. Do they have chemistry between Sid and ovi? I know we seen some play time at the allstar breaks but theres no contact and no one takes it seriously really. Also I dont see those Stanley cup wins either. Maybe 1 of the 3. Malkin can take over games by himself and do it all. Ovi relies on someone to feed him a one time pass in his spot. So as much ovi is a great goal scorer. I feel like Malkin is a better choice. Also sid would be paired with ovi that theory too. So who would the second line center thats great as him?
As unbelievable as 87&8 would be together 2players on 1 line is easier to stop than 2 top lines with 2 top 5 centers in the league. I’d rather have Malkin.
I would definitely sign mitch marner or Sam Bennett or both to one year contracts and trade both at the trade deadline and eat the contract, so give both away for free for Hella picks and prospects
Malkin every day of the week. Just cuz you defended Malkin before doesn't mean shit anymore. I'ma go back to tip of the iceberg 😢
Another Evgeni Malkin goal that doesn't get mentioned enough, is the one he scored in November of 2015 against the Minnesota Wild. It was a couple of weeks before the spino'rama goal he had against the Oilers.
It was November 17 of 2015 against the Wild, Malkin takes a pass from Phil Kessel, takes Mikael Granlund's lunch money, puts the puck between his legs with a beautiful deke, and then just rifles it past Devan Dubnyk. It was just beautiful he made Granlund look absolutely silly.
Another hot take that you guys could talk about maybe next week or some other Friday during the off-season it’s a pretty good historical one
How would things have played out? Had Pierre McGuire been named the Penguins general manager instead of Jim Rutherford in 2014?
Remember him and Mario were really good friends and it was down to him and Jim Rutherford for the job and he almost got it until they decided to go with Jim Rutherford instead . It would’ve been interesting to see how history would’ve played out differently.
Sorry, I'm taking Geno. Maybe it's too easy to say that as a Pens fan and history being what it is. But Geno was vital to our situation. I think yinz just both picked Ovie to have contrarian takes, to be honest. That's what I would do, too, if I ran a podcast. And if there's even the slightest chance we don't get Sidney by taking Ovie? Forget it. Let the Caps have…that friggin' guy.
Geno>ovechkin
The only taste we had of Sid setting Ovi up was the AllStar break with the METRO TEAM back when it was actually decently good and fun to watch with a lot more incentive to PARTICIPATE! coughKucherovcough
I’d say Ovi as an individual because he’s the goal scoring king, but overall and major wins, Malkin. He led 2 of the Pens Cup runs in scoring. And from 2007-2009, you could’ve made a reasonable case he was better than Crosby at that point in his career. He led the team in scoring 09, was the Conn Smyth winner, and who can forget his fight with Zetterberg.
As for my fav Geno goal, it’s too hard to pick one but the 2 that come to mind the most are the one where he scored in Tampa in 2011 where he looked Mario in 91 beating Casey like a rented mule, and the one in 2015 when he put the puck thru his legs against Minnesota I think.
In theory. Had the balls fallen right in 04 and Craig Patrick drafted correctly. They could have had Ovechkin in 04 Crosby in 05 then Toews or Backstrom in 06.
I love Geno. But I wonder if some of Sid's injuries may have been prevented if they had to deal with Ovechkin.
Edit:dang I lost my like from L.O. Penguins after correcting errors/typos.