Evgeni Malkin nearly brought to tears on Saturday.

The Pittsburgh Penguins picked up a massive win as far as their Stanley Cup playoff hopes are concerned on Saturday, smashing the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers by a very lopsided score of 9-4.

It was a huge day for the Penguins who saw several of their players add to their legends as far as the National Hockey League record books are concerned, with Penguins star forward Evgeni Malkin front and center. During the game Malkin would not only secure the 1,400th point of his NHL career, becoming just the 23rd player in NHL history to do so, but he would also pick up a huge hat trick on his way to helping his team secure a huge two points.

That hat trick would be cemented early in the game's third period when Malkin scored the Penguins 9th and final goal of the game. Malkin appeared to celebrate by removing a hat that he wasn't wearing, signaling to the Penguins faithful to start raining down the hats which they were more than happy to oblige.

After the conclusion of the game, Malkin was interviewed in front of that very same crowd with loud chants of "Geno! Geno! Geno!" audible throughout the interview. The chants appeared to leave Malkin a little emotional something he would confirm to reporters after the game had wrapped up.

"I almost cried a little bit, you know?" admitted Malkin. "It’s huge for me. I (last) scored a hat trick a long time ago, I don’t remember when. Again, it’s lots of emotion. And I want to say thank you. Thank you for the support for myself, (the) team. It’s crazy."

The Penguins have far exceeded the expectations that just about everyone had for them this season and, with Malkin being such a beloved figure in Pittsburgh, it comes as no surprise that he received such an outpouring of love today after a huge win for his team.