Penguins masterfully troll Evgeni Malkin before his 1000th NHL game.

The Pittsburgh Penguins pulled off one of the best pranks of the season thus far on Sunday night when they masterfully trolled Penguins star forward Evgeni Malkin.

Malkin is playing in the 1000th game of his National Hockey League career this evening against the Chicago Blackhawks, and his team decided to do something extra special before the game officially got underway.

You see Malkin has a rather unique tradition that he likes to engage in prior to the start of the game, a particular set of stretches that he tends to go through during the warmups of each and every game. Malkin however usually gets to do so all by his lonesome, but this time his teammates had a different idea in mind.

When Malkin hit the ice and began his stretching routine, his fellow teammates quickly followed suite and dropped to the ice and began to mimic the very same routine. Malkin very quickly caught on to what was happening and couldn't help but burst out laughing at the absurdity of what was unfolding before him. 

The Russian superstar genuinely seemed to love the moment and he showed his appreciation by tapping his stick several times on the ice.... after he was done stretching of course.

The mastermind behind the whole thing appears to have been Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.

"Sid went around the plane yesterday and told everybody that's what we were doing," said Brock McGinn. "I think everybody enjoyed it."