Evgeni Malkin

Jeff Carter doesn't possess the flair of Evgeni Malkin and he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve quite like Sidney Crosby, the two high-profile centers for Pittsburgh. He is loath to talk about himself, and gives the impression he would rather blend into the woodwork than become the center of attention. If so, the 24-year-old Flyers center is hurting his own cause, because guys who score 46 goals are difficult to ignore. The Penguins certainly won't, unless they have figured out some other way to get past the Flyers in the first-round playoff series that begins tonight in Pittsburgh.

Losing to Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference finals, the Flyers realized, in the words of coach John Stevens, that they have to "close the gap" between themselves and others. Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said yesterday that he wants to see what the Penguins do in the Stanley Cup Finals and in their bid to re-sign 12 unrestricted free agents this summer. Pittsburgh will look very different next fall. The gap between the Penguins and Flyers could shrink between July 1, when free agency begins, and early October, when the season starts.

1. Sydney Crosby, Penguins: Scored the first goal and added an assist. 2. Tyler Kennedy, Penguins: His goal gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead. 3. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins: Contributed a goal and an assist.

During his earlier teenage years, when Sean Couturier wasn't on the ice refining his skills, he watched as many NHL games as possible, and there was one explosive player who became his favorite. A guy named Evgeni Malkin. The same guy Couturier is frustrating in the first round of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Couturier, the 19-year-old Flyers rookie center, has gotten under the skin of Malkin, the veteran Pittsburgh Penguins center who had an NHL-high 109 regular-season points and is heavily favored to win the league's MVP award.

Matt Cooke scored his team-leading third goal of the season and the host Pittsburgh Penguins raced past the Florida Panthers, 4-2, on Tuesday. Pascal Dupuis, James Neal and Richard Park also had goals for the Penguins, who are off to their best start in 17 seasons despite playing without captain Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Crosby remains sidelined while he recovers from concussion-like symptoms, but Pittsburgh hasn't needed him during the season's first week, improving to 3-0-1.

Evgeni Malkin can't really explain what's going on with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He'd rather just enjoy the ride. Malkin pounded home a rebound 1 minute, 31 seconds into overtime to lift the streaking Penguins to their sixth straight win, a 4-3 triumph over the visiting Washington Capitals on Sunday. "I have great confidence now, you know?" Malkin said. "You win six games, I think everyone has great confidence now. "I just am enjoying the game, you know? And having fun. " Considering the way things have been going for Pittsburgh, it's kind of hard not to. Malkin has now scored in six straight games, matching the longest streak in the league this year.

EVGENI MALKIN can't explain what's going on with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He'd rather just enjoy the ride. Malkin pounded home a rebound 1 minutes, 31 seconds into overtime to lift the streaking Penguins to their sixth straight win, a 4-3 triumph over the visiting Washington Capitals yesterday. "I have great confidence now," Malkin said. "You win six games, I think everyone has great confidence now. I just am enjoying the game. And having fun. " Malkin has scored in six straight games, matching the longest streak in the league this year.

DID YOU KNOW that a newspaper can shift a series in the Stanley Cup playoffs? Neither did we. But that's what fans - on both the Flyers and Penguins side alike - were accusing the Daily News of doing, thanks to our April 18 cover that depicted Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby as a lion with the headline: "The Cowardly Penguin: Time to Finish Off Sniveling Sidney. " Fans accused the Daily News of everything from "jinxing" to "sabotaging" the series on the day the Flyers had a chance to pull off a sweep.

Two weeks after Pittsburgh's season seemed on the brink of unraveling with a six-game slide, the Penguins have turned things around. Pittsburgh enters the all-star break riding a seven-game winning streak, the franchise's longest since ripping off 12 straight in November-December 2010. Yet that run came with the team nearly at full strength, before Sidney Crosby's odyssey to recover from concussion symptoms began, before Evgeni Malkin's season ended abruptly with knee issues. This run has come with Crosby out indefinitely - again.

Sidney Crosby was making no excuses. On a day that his Pittsburgh Penguins team needed him to recapture his Stanley Cup-winning past, Crosby's lack of production drew notice. The Flyers closed out their first-round series with the Penguins with Sunday's 5-1 win at the Wells Fargo Center, winning this sometimes crazy matchup four games to two. On the surface, Crosby's statistics looked solid - three goals and five assists for eight points in the six games. Yet Crosby didn't register a point in the final two games.

DID YOU KNOW that a newspaper can shift a series in the Stanley Cup playoffs? Neither did we. But that's what fans - on both the Flyers and Penguins side alike - were accusing the Daily News of doing, thanks to our April 18 cover that depicted Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby as a lion with the headline: "The Cowardly Penguin: Time to Finish Off Sniveling Sidney. " Fans accused the Daily News of everything from "jinxing" to "sabotaging" the series on the day the Flyers had a chance to pull off a sweep.

SOMEBODY POKED the bear. Somebody woke up the grizzly that is the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they finally focused the monstrous talent that had slumbered through the first three games - all Flyers wins; all gifts from an indulgent, petty team of pretty scorers. Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, a Russian, aptly quipped on the eve of the quarterfinal series that, facing the fearsome Penguins attack, he feared nothing . . . except "the bear in the forest. " The bear was sleepwalking for 7 days, losing games, starting fights, getting suspended, losing three games.

During his earlier teenage years, when Sean Couturier wasn't on the ice refining his skills, he watched as many NHL games as possible, and there was one explosive player who became his favorite. A guy named Evgeni Malkin. The same guy Couturier is frustrating in the first round of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Couturier, the 19-year-old Flyers rookie center, has gotten under the skin of Malkin, the veteran Pittsburgh Penguins center who had an NHL-high 109 regular-season points and is heavily favored to win the league's MVP award.

PITTSBURGH - For the Pittsburgh Penguins, one player - more than any other - is vital to their on-ice success against the Flyers. He is a 24-year-old Canadian with a sparkling resumé that includes a Stanley Cup, multiple All-Star appearances and statistics that stack up with the best in his position in the NHL. He missed a significant chunk of this season with postconcussion symptoms. He returned for a bit, dazzled to pull the Penguins out of a funk, and then was forced to sit out again later because of fogginess.

JAMES NEAL saw the puck roll to the corner and sprinted to dig it out. The sight of hockey's most intimidating player standing in his way hardly mattered. The Penguins forward shoved 6-9 Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara in the back then nudged the puck to teammate Evgeni Malkin. The NHL's leading scorer fed Matt Niskanen at the point, and when Niskanen's slap shot hit the back of the net the league's hottest team was on its way to a 5-2 home win. "We wanted to get on [Chara]

Two weeks after Pittsburgh's season seemed on the brink of unraveling with a six-game slide, the Penguins have turned things around. Pittsburgh enters the all-star break riding a seven-game winning streak, the franchise's longest since ripping off 12 straight in November-December 2010. Yet that run came with the team nearly at full strength, before Sidney Crosby's odyssey to recover from concussion symptoms began, before Evgeni Malkin's season ended abruptly with knee issues. This run has come with Crosby out indefinitely - again.

Evgeni Malkin can't really explain what's going on with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He'd rather just enjoy the ride. Malkin pounded home a rebound 1 minute, 31 seconds into overtime to lift the streaking Penguins to their sixth straight win, a 4-3 triumph over the visiting Washington Capitals on Sunday. "I have great confidence now, you know?" Malkin said. "You win six games, I think everyone has great confidence now. "I just am enjoying the game, you know? And having fun. " Considering the way things have been going for Pittsburgh, it's kind of hard not to. Malkin has now scored in six straight games, matching the longest streak in the league this year.

EVGENI MALKIN can't explain what's going on with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He'd rather just enjoy the ride. Malkin pounded home a rebound 1 minutes, 31 seconds into overtime to lift the streaking Penguins to their sixth straight win, a 4-3 triumph over the visiting Washington Capitals yesterday. "I have great confidence now," Malkin said. "You win six games, I think everyone has great confidence now. I just am enjoying the game. And having fun. " Malkin has scored in six straight games, matching the longest streak in the league this year.

RICHARD PARK scored the go-ahead goal 2 minutes, 23 seconds into the third period, Evgeni Malkin padded the lead with two, and workhorse Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves to give the suddenly hot Pittsburgh Penguins a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden last night. Park finished a crisp, three-way passing play with Matt Cooke and Deryk Engelland that worked right-to-left across the Rangers zone, and beat Henrik Lundqvist with a shot inside the left post.