​Original author: Ken Campbell: Jul. 17, 2017When he coached the Pittsburgh Penguins, Dan Bylsma regularly referred to Evgeni Malkin as the smartest guy in the room. On this night, he was probably also the happiest. And that’s saying something because it was a very big room. There was Yevgeni Vladimirovich Malkin, son of a steelworker from working-class Magnitogorsk, standing at center ice of Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, basking in the glow of winning his third career Stanley Cup and the Penguins’ second straight, cementing the team’s and the player’s places in the annals of the game.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHe had a cut across the bridge of his nose that was leaking slowly, not a battle scar but an accidental nick from a teammate’s visor that hit him during the celebration, a touch ironic considering Malkin was the postseason leader in penalty minutes. He didn’t have it moments before when he was jumping around like a little kid on the bench with Phil Kessel to celebrate Carl Hagelin’s empty-net goal. “It’s like, it’s crazy, you know,” Malkin said. “It’s not a penalty for sure.”Then, like Adrian did in the first Rocky movie, Anna Kasterova made her way through the mass of humanity and jumped into her husband’s arms. He twirled her around on his skates and they kissed. But this wasn’t one of those ‘we-did-itand- look-how-happy-we-are’ pecks for public consumption. No, Kasterova took her husband’s sweaty, bearded face in her hands and the two of them went all Bogie and Bacall. It was the kind of kiss that makes people start looking down at their shoes after a while, the type of PDA (Public Display of Affection) that makes someone want to wisecrack, “Hey, get a room!”The record shows Malkin received only three first-place votes for the 2017 Conn Smythe Trophy, despite being the playoff scoring leader, once again usurped by the omnipresent Sidney Crosby, who unseated Malkin by putting the Penguins on his back in the last two games of the Stanley Cup final. Until then, it looked as though Malkin was going to win his second Conn Smythe and become only the second player in history to go at least seven years between being named playoff MVP, joining Patrick Roy. After the game, the Penguins were talking about Crosby earning his place as one of the greatest NHL players of all-time (more on that on page 66). Malkin, meanwhile, couldn’t even get his name on the league’s list of the top 100 players of all-time earlier this season.We’re going to assume he was No. 101. We’re also going to assume it doesn’t bother him in the least. As teammate Ian Cole said, “Do I think he’s broken up over it? No. I don’t think he’s constantly going home and crying himself to sleep that he wasn’t part of the top 100.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLooking at Malkin that night in Nashville, beaming with his beautiful wife, you’d have to think the lack of recognition was the furthest thing