It seemed as if a dark cloud settled over downtown Pittsburgh the night Evgeni Malkin accidentally tripped over Kris Letang and skidded awkwardly into the boards.
Before that untimely crash, Malkin was surging. He looked like a man hell-bent on making sure his disappointing 2018-19 season performance was ancient history. And in one shift, all of that exciting revenge tour noise came to a thundering halt.
Then even more injuries started piling up. Bryan Rust was already nursing a broken hand, which was a big loss in its own right, but once Malkin was ruled out, Nick Bjugstad, Alex Galchenyuk, and for a short period, Patric Hornqvist all started dropping from the Penguins’ depth chart as well.