Mike Sullivan addresses concerns around Evgeni Malkin and Russia.

Since the conflict between Russian and Ukraine began the political nature of that conflict has been bleeding into the world of sports. While we might prefer if that were not the case the reality is that there has been no avoiding it, and as a result even in the National Hockey League we have seen it become a hot button issue. At the forefront of that issue has been Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin due to his close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, but the fact of the matter is that there are many other players in the NHL who are currently dealing with issues in their home countries.

One such player is Pittsburgh Penguins star forward Evgeni Malkin. There hasn't been a great deal of mention regarding Malkin in relation to this topic but on Sunday Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan was asked about how the Penguins were handling a difficult situation involving one of their top players. As you would expect the always eloquent Sullivan did not disappoint with his response, indicating that he and the Penguins have thrown their full support behind Malkin.

"Yeah we have," responded Sullivan when asked if he had spoken to Malkin about the issue. "We've had open discussion with Gino with respect to this. He knows that he has the full support of being part of the Pittsburgh Penguins family and we're all concerned for him. You know I can't imagine going through what he's going through. He has family living in Russia, a country that is at war right now in a real difficult circumstance, to no fault of his own, quite frankly. I think a lot of this stuff is bleeding into sports and knowing Gino the way I know him he loves being a hockey player, he loves doing what he does and he loves his family. So for sure we have concern for him and we have had open dialogue with him with respect to this."

The unfortunate reality is that many Russian athletes have faced a great deal of criticism from around the world due to the actions of their country, actions that they themselves have absolutely no control over. Malkin has no doubt been no exception to this, but thankfully he has a good support network around him thanks in part to the Pittsburgh Penguins.