If Malkin’s suspect play in the first two games of the second round was an isolated incident, it would be easy to chalk it up to a couple off nights. However, combined with his lacklustre performance in last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, and you have to wonder if the Penguins have a case of “Jumbo Gino” on their hands.

Here’s hoping that Malkin breaks out in a big way and is able to show Ovechkin and Crosby that another superstar came to play in this series, too.

When Marian Hossa played for the Ottawa Senators his performance was undoubtedly marginal for a player with his talent. Hossa’s numbers for the Sens in the post season were 51 games played, 13 goals, 21 assists for 34 points. Hossa only played four games in the post season for the Atlanta Thrashers– a team which he was traded to with Gregg de Vries for Dany Heatley– and his totals were 1 assist for one point.

While in Ottawa Hossa played with Martin Havlat, and Daniel Alfedsson, which is why people were wondering why his totals weren’t higher. When Hossa was playing for the Sens, they really didn’t have more scoring than that line, so it was easy for a team to shut down the Sens.

While in Atlanta, Hossa played with Marc Savard, and Ilya Kovalchuk. To Hossa’s defence he only played in 4 games for the Thrashers in the post season, but he only managed to total 1 assist, which some fans were saying that if Hossa would have scored more, perhaps the Thrashers would have gone further.

Now that Hossa is in Pittsburgh, he seems to be on a tear, with 8 goals, and 7 assists for 15 points in 12 games, I don’t hear anyone criticizing him this year in the post season. Sure Hossa is playing with Sidney Crosby, and the while fact that Evgeni Malkin is on the team doesn’t hurt either, Hossa is having a great play-off run.

Hossa has played with arguably some of the best players in hockey over the last few years. Kovalchuk, Crosby, Alfredsson, Havlat, and Malkin have all called Hossa a team-mate. All three teams that Hossa has played for, have had the luxury of being able to put talent on his line, why is it that in Pittsburgh Hossa is thriving?  Are Crosby and Malkin more talented than Havlat and Alfredsson? Perhaps more talented than Kovalchuk and Savard. Well Savard is the one with the least amount of talent amongst those other names, but having Alfredsson and Havlat as line-mates isn’t bad at all, and having Kovalchuk as your other winger isn’t bad either, so why is Hossa playing better in Pittsburgh?

Perhaps there are better leaders in Pittsburgh. Maybe the coaching suits Hossa’s style more. But possibly, the fact that Hossa’s line– which includes Crosby– isn’t the only line scoring, so teams aren’t only watching, and defending against Hossa. Let’s face it, in Ottawa Hossa’s line was doing almost all of the scoring, in Atlanta, same thing.

Marian Hossa is making some spectacular passes, and scoring some nice goals in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately given the fact Hossa becomes an unrestricted free agent this July 1, it will be hard for the Pens to keep him. Pittsburgh has to deal with Ryan Malone–if they choose to keep him– and Sidney Crosby starts earning the 8.5 million next season, not to mention the fact that Malkin’s entry contract is up after next season.

Hossa has always been a star in the NHL, now he is trying to be a post season star as well. Hossa who almost ended up playing for the Montreal Canadiens in late February, has been rumoured going everywhere, most notably Boston, or Montreal next season. With these play-offs being great for the Slovak, his asking price just went up from 7-8 million to 8-10 million for his next contract. Someone will give him that amount of money, especially if he keeps producing in the post season.

For now Hossa is silencing all of his critics. It’s good to see someone with all that talent not being criticized be everyone for once. Let’s hope that he keeps producing for the Pens.