Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin, who has missed 17 games this season, will return to action tonight. (USA Today)

By Allan Muir

Good news tonight in Pittsburgh — and bad news for the rest of the league.

Local media are reporting that Evgeni Malkin will check back into the lineup for tonight’s home game against the Buffalo Sabres. The reigning Hart Trophy winner has missed 17 games this season, including the last four with a lingering upper body injury.

Other sources say that Marc-Andre Fleury and Kris Letang also are set to play. Fleury missed the last game in Ottawa to stay by the side of his pregnant wife. Letang missed the trip with food poisoning.

There’s no word yet on possible return dates for the players remaining on the sidelines, including Sidney Crosby, James Neal and Paul Martin.

The Pens are currently on a seven-game winning streak that already has seen them clinch the top seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The big question is: how strong and sharp will Sidney Crosby be when he returns? (Jeanine Leech/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

Sidney Crosby learned today that he’d been named the NHL’s First Star for March. He might have appreciated the nod a bit more if he hadn’t heard about it while laid up in in the hospital.

Crosby, the NHL’s leading scorer and prohibitive favorite to capture another Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP, is still under doctor’s care — not a good sign — and is out of the Penguins’ lineup indefinitely two days after suffering a broken jaw in a game against the Islanders on Saturday afternoon.

“Indefinite” is a purposely nebulous term. The Pens have promised an update later in the week, but they don’t want to say anything before they have to.

But we know these things tend to require 4-6 weeks to heal. That means Sid could be out for the rest of the regular season…and possibly into the playoffs, which are scheduled to start Apr. 30.

That’s a tough break (sorry about that) for Crosby, who was putting together a season for the ages, and for a Pittsburgh squad that had been universally anointed as Stanley Cup favorites just last week after a trio of deals added Brenden Morrow, Douglas Murray and Jarome Iginla to an already nasty lineup.

Oh, and this team has won 15 straight games, just two shy of the all-time record.

DATER: Pens take hit, but stay No. 1 in NHL Power Rankings

No team can lose a talent like Crosby and not feel it…but is it really a disaster for the Pens?

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By Allan Muir

Is there a Russian version of EGOT we don’t know about? Because it looks like Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk are going for it.

Already superstars on the ice, the Slavic Getzlaf and Ryan are putting their acting chops on display in a new Russian children’s movie, 12 Months.

I’m not sure if the hockey gods have this kind of pull, but this sets up the greatest episode of Inside The Actor’s Studio ever.

From what I can decipher (hey, it’s been 30 years since I studied Russian at U-Dub), a girl somehow intercepts 12 wishes that were intended for a younger boy to use over the course of a year. Instead of returning them to the rightful owner, she sets out to make his wishes come true so she can keep the magical wishes for herself.

Much zaniness ensues.

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Evgeni Malkin is reeling after taking a big hit in last night’s game against Florida. [Gene J. Puskar/AP]

We don’t yet know exactly how badly Evgeni Malkin was injured after brutally slamming his head into the boards in last night’s game against the Panthers. But we do know that our early fears have been confirmed. This, from Rob Rossi at the Pittsburgh Tribune:

Evgeni Malkin is experiencing concussion symptoms, including severe headache and mild disorientation, multiple sources confirmed Saturday. Malkin was injured early in the third period of the Penguins’ win over Florida at Consol Energy Center on Friday. He did not finish the game after sliding into the end-zone boards. The back of his head appeared to bounce off the boards, and Malkin’s neck snapped back in a seeming whiplash motion.

A team source said Malkin was out of the lineup for Sunday’s home game against the Lightning. After that? Who knows. A mild concussion may mean he’s out for a matter of days. But as the Pens know all too well from Sidney Crosby’s brain injuries, these things can be wildly unpredictable. At this point, we just have to hope for the best.

It’s worth noting that no one involved thought that Erik Gudbranson’s hit was dirty in any way.

“I just finished my check,” Gudbranson said after the game. “You never want to see a guy go down. He’s in a vulnerable position. But you can’t pass up a hit. Its unfortunate that he got hurt on the play, but it’s one I’d make every time.”

By Allan Muir

A guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• That’s how you settle a score. Enforcer John Scott ragdolled Shawn Thornton, and red-hot Thomas Vanek rang up five points as the Buffalo Sabres whipped the “brain-dead” Bruins, 7-4.

• Another night, another parade to the penalty box for the bumbling Washington Capitals. Giving up 40 shots probably didn’t help, either as the Leafs came back for a 3-2 win.

• They’re not just talking about Ryan Kesler in Vancouver. They’re still on about Nail Yakupov’s goal celebration and the need to help players learn to celebrate responsibly.

• The Canucks still don’t have a timetable for Kesler’s return. They won’t really know what they are — or what they need — until he skates.

• Logan Couture shows support for the San Francisco 49ers with the first-known display of Kaepernicking on ice. Oh, and the San Jose Sharks are now 7-0.

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After only two games, the Penguins look like the class of the league. (Will Schneekloth/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

• The parade goes through Pittsburgh. Road wins over the Flyers and Rangers have me feeling pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good about picking the Penguins as my Stanley Cup favorites. And they managed the sweep without a goal from Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

• The man behind the curtain. Forget about dumping Gary Bettman. Until the NHL Board of Governors gets out from under the bitter, svengali-like influence of Boston owner Jeremy Jacobs, we’re just killing time until the next lockout.

• Here he can watch the ice instead of his back. Columbus’ roster might be just a step up from a second-year expansion side, but Todd Richards and a revamped coaching staff bring the Blue Jackets a step closer to respectability ahead of tonight’s home opener vs. the Red Wings. I think this is the first time I’ve seen the loudly whispered rumors of Martin Havlat’s Wild dressing room subterfuge in print, which serves as a gentle reminder that Dany Heatley could play Sit ‘N’ Spin on the bench and that deal will always be a winner for Minnesota.

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The insurance on Alex Ovechkin for this year’s World Championships came to $400,000 and he played in only three games. The price for a KHL season will be much higher. (Photo by Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/GettyImages)

By Stu Hackel

They’re packing up and getting ready to go: Locked out NHL players have begun their inevitable migration to Europe in search of work.

Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar are headed to Magnitogorsk to play for Metallurg of the KHL. Jaromir Jagr heads home to Kladno in the Czech Republic to play for his hometown team, which he owns with his father, and it seems that Tomas Plekanec will go with him. Joe Thornton, who met his wife while playing for Davos in the Swiss league during the last lockout, will go back there and could be joined by Rick Nash, his linemate in Davos that season. Ilya Kovalchuk, Ruslan Fedotenko, Lubomir Visnovsky, Jiri Tlusty, Mark Streit, Yannick Weber, Jiri Hudler, Jussi Jokinen and goalies Michal Neuvirth and Semyon Varlamov are also part of the first wave of signings across the Atlantic. There are indications that Alex Ovechkin, Logan Couture, Niklas Backstrom and Anze Kopitar could be right behind while Pavel Datsyuk, who had reportedly been signed actually remains undecided.   (You can follow the post-lockout transactions here.)

These signings occasionally get murky, confirmed then unconfirmed. The player and the team must agree on the money, the player has to be formally transferred by the IIHF (Nail Yakopov is having that problem) and there is also the matter of insurance and we’ll get into that below.

What’s not murky is that while players wait for negotiators to reach an agreement, staying in shape is a priority. That’s why some choose to play in Europe. They can rent ice in North America and scrimmage with each other all they want, or practice with established clubs in their areas on a daily basis, but nothing takes the place of real games. For some, especially those who have families in North America, it’s not always an easy decision to pick up and go, so they may delay a Euro decision in hope that the sides reach an agreement sooner rather than later. But the longer this CBA stalemate goes on, the more those who remain here will consider going over.

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Fan memorials to the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team that perished in the 2011 KHL air crash began immediately and will continue with a march through the club’s home city as a new season dawns. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

They had bright hopes for a new season. They rolled down the runway, taking off for their opening game, which was to be played the next evening in Minsk. The entire playing roster, plus four members of the youth team as well as the coaching and training staffs were on board, as was a crew of eight. Their plane ran off the runway before takeoff, didn’t gain much altitude, hit a signal tower and fell into the Volga River just over a mile from the Tunoshna Airport. All but one person, a flight attendant, were killed.

Friday marks the first anniversary of the worst tragedy ever to hit the hockey world, the Yaroslavl plane crash in which 37 members of the Lokomotiv KHL team perished . A silent march through the streets of Yaroslavl, a true hockey town long devoted to the club, will mark the occasion. But Thursday, the re-formed Lokomotiv team returns to playing its KHL season opener, visiting Sibir Novosibirsk.

UPDATE: With three second period goals, Lokomotiv defeated Sibir 5-2. More details below.

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Few people get fired up about the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play and sportsmanship, however Panthers defenseman Brian Campbell will be a rare bird if he wins it. (Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The NHL hands out its annual individual player awards tonight in Las Vegas during a glitzy, star-spangled gala that’s a far cry from the afternoon luncheons in Montreal that were hosted by Clarence Campbell.

Just as the regular season and playoffs were hard to predict as a result of the league’s parity, it’s difficult to try determining who the voters selected for some of the hardware, and there may be some controversial choices among fans who will believe that the wrong guy won. You have to keep in mind that the voting was done at the conclusion of the regular season and the award recognizes only that aspect of the players’ performances. The playoffs are not a factor.

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Of concern: Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist showed signs of wearing down as the regular season wore on. (Scott Levy/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

If you’re looking for Stanley Cup predictions, you’ve come to the wrong place. As we’ve previously written, predictions are a waste of time. However, we’re willing to take some stabs at what is each playoff team about. What do they have to do to win? What must they avoid to prevent things from going south?

So here are the keys to the first round match-ups in the Eastern Conference. You can find the keys to the Western Conference here.

NEW YORK RANGERS (1) vs. OTTAWA SENATORS (8)

Rangers - Who they are and how they win:  This team is all about character and sacrifice, starting with captain Ryan Callahan. The Rangers play with unmatched passion, and their shot-blocking and energy are exceptional. They don’t lose a lot of races for the puck and they take hits to make plays. They roll four lines and have better team speed than some think, especially up front, which gives them a dangerous quick-strike offense. Some  people believe New York is a one-line team, but it had decent secondary scoring this season and, because coach John Tortorella has juggled lines all year, he can probably correct any imbalance. Solid defensively, the Rangers keep opponents to the outside and have world-class goaltending with Henrik Lundqvist.

What could go wrong: . The Rangers’ shot-blocking and physical sacrifice could lead to injuries and a depleted lineup. Lundqvist was not at his best in the late going and that would be problematic if it continues in the postseason. They also don’t have a great power play and taking advantage of those opportunities in the postseason is crucial. The Rangers could get frustrated if their power play falters. The worst thing they could do is be overconfident or take Ottawa too lightly. The Senators are just as fast a team and they have played well against New York all season.

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