Malkin played great in the 2nd and 3rd.
I can't agree with that. Him and Kessel were terrible tonight. Really bad. Turnovers, looked tired, etc.
I think Malkin would look better away from Kessel. I don't know that Kessel will look better away from Malkin right now though. Phil is either battling an injury or just slumping or both. He's been real bad lately.
The positives for me tonight are Sid keeps playing well, Murray is looking better, and overall the team looked more committed defensively tonight. Yes there were still some idiotic turnovers but I also saw a lot of plays where guys opted to make the safe play rather than the fancy one which is not something we've seen recently.
Case in point: Rust gets the puck in the corner in the 3rd with 10-15 seconds left. Rather than spinning it to the point like I could tell he wanted to he opted to eat the puck instead and take the OT point. That's smart. That's playoff hockey.