Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan talks about playing with confidence. With the trade deadline approaching, the Pittsburgh Penguins are doing everything in their power to convince Ron Hextall to buy-in to this team, despite all the moves their Eastern Conference foes are making. They’ve backed up a four-game losing skid with a mini two-game winning streak after beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-3 on Sunday evening. Multiple Penguins broke scoring droughts within the past few games. Marcus Pettersson scored his first of the season on Saturday while Teddy Blueger and Brian Dumoulin scored on Sunday. If the Penguins are going to beat out the myriad of bubble playoff teams in the East, they’re going to need contributions from those guys. However, possibly the most impressive part of all of this might be the seasons that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are having offensively at ages 35 and 36, respectively. Both guys added two more points to their season totals in Sunday’s win. Crosby now has 71 points and Malkin has earned 62. Both guys, despite being two of the Penguins’ oldest players, have played in all 59 games for the team this season. The magnitude of that can’t be stressed enough. Crosby has seemingly been the same player for his entire career. Sure, he isn’t putting up 120 points like he did in the beginning of his career but if his health prevails, he’ll put up 100+ points for the first time since the 2018-19’ season…at 35-years of age. Malkin is playing his first full season post-knee surgery. All he’s done is score 23 goals and is on pace for around 90 points. Keep in mind that he is 36-years-old. It’s no secret that the Penguins’ problems lie in their bottom-six currently. Due to this, the Penguins’ older stars can only carry them so far and it resulted in just a 10-12-4 record since Christmas. In that same time, Malkin has 29 points to go with Crosby’s 28 points in 26 games since the holiday. At their age, it’s tough to expect them to have the A-game on a nightly basis but it seems that 90% of the time, at least one of them looks to have that extra hop in their step and the Penguins are obviously a better team because of that. Connor McDavid is the best player in the game and these guys won’t be challenging the Oilers star for that crown at their age. However, what they’re doing must continue to be appreciated and still has them among the league’s elite players despite the notion that the Penguins are “too old”. Make sure you bookmark Inside the Penguins [http://insidethepenguins.com/]for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns and so much more! Struggling Penguins Break Through in Dominant Victory [https://www.si.com/nhl/penguins/news/struggling-pittsburgh-penguins-break-through-dominant-victory] Penguins Get Complete Team Effort in Rout of Lightning [https://www.si.com/nhl/penguins/news/pittsburgh-penguins-complete-team-effort-rout-tampa-bay-lightning] Does Jakob Chychrun Make Sense for Penguins? [https://www.si.com/nhl/penguins/pens-talk/jakob-chychrun-make-sense-pittsburgh-penguins] Penguins Back in Market for Depth Forward [https://www.si.com/nhl/penguins/pens-talk/pittsburgh-penguins-back-market-depth-forward] Ron Hextall Botched Penguins With Kasperi Kapanen [https://www.si.com/nhl/penguins/pens-talk/ron-hextall-botched-pittsburgh-penguins-kasperi-kapanen] * undefined * undefined
