Penguins lose Evgeni Malkin.... again.

I must admit I feel pretty bad for Evgeni Malkin here.

The Pittsburgh Penguins star forward had a long road back from injury in the offseason and as a result he has only appeared in 12 regular season games for the Penguins since making his season debut. Now it looks like he will be forced to miss even more time after the Penguins officially announced on Monday that the Russian star will be out of action.

The Penguins have revealed that Malkin has been added to the National Hockey League's Covid protocol list, presumably due to the fact that he has been flagged by a positive test for Covid. This likely means that Malkin will miss the next few games, although some players have been able to come back quickly after a series of consecutive negative tests.

In spite of the fact that he had a very extended layoff due to injury, Malkin has performed well since returning to the Penguins lineup this season. Over the 12 games that he did play he recorded 5 goals and 8 assists for a total of 13 points, and producing at a pace of over a point per game following such a serious injury likely overshooting even the most optimistic of expectations.

Of course the main concern here will be both his long term and short term health, and I can only hope that this won't be a serious bout of the virus and that he will make a full recovery in relatively quick fashion.