{"id":531497,"date":"2026-03-30T19:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/531497\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:12:14","slug":"andrew-gross-islanders-wont-underestimate-penguins-even-if-sidney-crosby-evgeni-malkin-are-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/531497\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Gross: Islanders won’t underestimate Penguins even if Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin are out"},"content":{"rendered":"

It could only benefit the Islanders if Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin<\/a> were not in the Penguins\u2019 lineup for Monday night\u2019s potential playoff preview at UBS Arena.<\/p>\n

Right?<\/p>\n

Right?<\/p>\n

Malkin wound up sidelined for a fourth game with an upper-body injury while Crosby (lower-body injury) was a game-time decision.<\/p>\n

And, it turns out, it was a more nuanced pregame discussion among Islanders\u2019 players when Newsday canvassed the dressing room.<\/p>\n

Sure, the lack of two future Hall of Famers in a lineup would seem to be a boon to the Islanders as they played the Penguins with second place in the Metropolitan Division<\/a> (which carries home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs) up for grabs. Plus, these two teams are still trying to hold off the Blue Jackets and hard-charging Flyers to qualify for the postseason.<\/p>\n

But a distinguishing feature of professional athletes is their innate competitive nature. There is a pleasing challenge to playing the Penguins with those two on the ice and a certain satisfaction in defeating them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I understand the question,\u201d captain Anders Lee told Newsday. \u201cI think it\u2019s both. You want to earn it. Let\u2019s go out there and earn it regardless of whether those guys are in. They make such an impact on that team. We know that. We know how special they are to that group and what they can do on the ice. At the end of the day, it does come back to us and how we play and our focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you play a team and their top guys are out, it just looks like a different lineup,\u201d Mathew Barzal said. \u201cWhether they\u2019re in or out this time of the year, our mindset stays the same. They\u2019re both amazing. It\u2019s tough with them in. When those guys are out of the lineup, sometimes it\u2019s equally as tough because you\u2019ve got guys called up and working their hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Penguins have exceeded preseason expectations and been a factor in the playoff race all season under former Rangers assistant Dan Muse, who should receive some Jack Adams Award consideration as the NHL\u2019s top coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what resiliency does for a team,\u201d Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cPlaying without great leaders and great hockey players, you have to find ways to win hockey games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crosby missed Saturday\u2019s 6-3 loss to the visiting Stars and also missed the first 11 games following the Olympic break after getting injured playing for Team Canada. Malkin also was suspended for five games from March 7-14 before this injury absence.<\/p>\n

The Penguins entered Monday 7-5-4 since their post-Olympic\u00a0season resumed on Feb. 26 when Crosby or Malkin or both were out of the lineup.<\/p>\n

Which is why Casey Cizikas said, \u201cYou can\u2019t really make that argument for them,\u201d when asked about the Penguins being a better team with Crosby and\/or Malkin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve had those guys out,\u201d Cizikas said. \u201cThat\u2019s not to knock those guys, they\u2019re arguably two of the best players of all time. That team has found a way even without those guys, at times, to play really good hockey and get wins. It doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s in the lineup for them, they\u2019re finding ways to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a side note, any sense these answers are of the waffling nature stems from the Islanders\u2019 players not wanting to say the wrong thing or anything that could potentially be used as bulletin-board material in the Penguins\u2019 room.<\/p>\n

Because, of course, having Crosby and Malkin makes the Penguins a more complete, dangerous team. And if the Islanders do face them in the playoffs, the expectation would be that both will be in the lineup from Game 1.<\/p>\n

The Islanders were also coming off a 5-2 win over the injury-depleted Panthers on Saturday. Among the players not in Florida\u2019s lineup that day were Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett, A.J. Greer, Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart and Uvis Balinskis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said it during the Florida game, too, they were missing a lot of guys,\u201d Kyle MacLean said. \u201cRegardless of who they have, if you get caught up a little too much in who they\u2019re dressing, you\u2019re not focusing on yourself. You\u2019re wasting energy. Every team right now, regardless if it\u2019s playing Sid and Malkin, they\u2019re going to be ready to go. We\u2019ve seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe, down deep, the answer each Islander wanted to give was, \u201cHeck, yeah, we\u2019d prefer not to face Crosby and Malkin.\u201d<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t be too sure.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John\u2019s and MLB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It could only benefit the Islanders if Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were not in the Penguins\u2019 lineup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5113],"tags":[5,159,4,118,1469,100,5216],"class_list":{"0":"post-531497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-new-york-islanders","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-penguins","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","14":"tag-pittsburghpenguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116319719396792527","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}