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Malkin Draws Four-Game Suspension For ‘Aggressive’ Crosscheck

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Pittsburgh Penguins, Evgeni Malkin

The Pittsburgh Penguins, who have eight games remaining in the regular season, will be without center Evgeni Malkin for the first four of those, based on a suspension handed out Monday night by the NHL Department of Player Safety.

Malkin drew the supplemental discipline for his crosscheck to the mouth of Nashville’s Mark Borowiecki in the second period of Sunday’s 3-2 overtime win. Borowiecki was bloodied and did not return to the game.

It was announced earlier Monday that Malkin would have a disciplinary hearing in the evening.

In the explanatory video supplied by the NHL, Malkin’s crosscheck was called “retaliatory and aggressive.”

He will forfeit $190,000 in salary, with the money going to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

It is the second time Malkin has been suspended in his career. The first was for one game in 2019 for a stick-swinging incident. He has also been fined three times.

Malkin has 17 goals, 37 points in 37 games this season, which began with him on the shelf after offseason knee surgery.

It’s not clear how Malkin’s absence will affect the Penguins’ lineup or line combinations. The team earlier Monday returned forwards Anthony Angello and Radim Zohorna to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. That would leave them with just 11 healthy forwards, unless Brock McGinn’s return from a suspected hand injury is imminent. Angello, Zohorna or another player could be recalled on an emergency basis.

Malkin will miss a home-and-home series against the New York Islanders — the Penguins can clinch a playoff berth with a regulation win Tuesday night on the road over the Islanders — and a home-and-home series against Boston.