The Philadelphia Flyers gave the Pittsburgh Penguins some life this past Saturday, as they lost 4-2 in Game 4, missing out on a chance to complete a sweep of their in-state rivals. The last thing they wanted to do was to give the Penguins momentum for the remainder of this series. The Flyers had to respond, and bring an end to the Penguins' optimism.
Early on in Game 5, to the surprise of no Flyers fan ever, Evgeni Malkin was up to some antics to try and get under the team's skin.
Not too long after puck drop, there was a stoppage in play. Seconds after the referees blew the whistle and play was dead, Malkin back-handed the puck into the Flyers bench, which nearly made contact with the head of a member of the head coach Rick Tocchet's staff. Tocchet was understandably upset over the incident, where he can be seen saying "It almost hit me in the head!"
Rick Tocchet was FURIOUS at Malkin after he fired a puck into the Flyers bench 😳 pic.twitter.com/7Qdndwckco
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 27, 2026
Evgeni Malkin fires puck into Flyers bench early in Game 5
ESPN's Ray Ferraro, who was standing in between the Penguins and Flyers benches, was stunned that Malkin would pull off something like that after play was blown dead.
"I'm not exactly sure what Malkin is doing, the play was whistled dead and he just shot the puck into the Flyers' bench," Ferraro said, before Sean McDonough asked if he thought it was intentional. "Sean I have no idea what he's thinking. The whistle got blown way before that. I don't even know why he would think to do that, it' such a strange play."
"It certainly seemed intentional", McDonough said after ESPN showed another angle of the replay, to which Ferraro exasperatingly agreed.
Malkin was not penalized by the on-ice officials for this, only adding to Flyers fans' frustrations.
Malkin would enter the penalty box later on in the first period. After Garnet Hathaway was called for tripping Elmer Soderblom, Malkin got into it with Travis Konecny and punched the alternate captain in the face. Malkin was called for roughing, as was Konecny. Hathaway, who responded after Malkin hit Konecny, was also called for roughing.
It was an eventful and chippy first period. But seeing Malkin pull off some antics like he did during the first 20 minutes probably had some Flyers fans especially irritated.
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