CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Matt Cullen could have taken all the credit.
He could have said that Evgeni Malkin's spike in faceoff efficiency, which correlated roughly with a visit Cullen made to practice a month or so ago, can be traced to a tweak he made in Malkin's technique, or perhaps to a tip he passed along about how to angle his stick blade or anticipate the drop of the puck.
Instead, Cullen said it is a simple matter of genetics and desire.
Malkin's, not his.
"(Malkin) has all the ability to win faceoffs," Cullen said after the Penguins' practice Wednesday. "He's so big and strong and he's got the unique skills set, with the great hands and the great hand-eye coordination."
And, since mid-November, Malkin also has had a legitimate urgency, because the Penguins have had to replace their go-to faceoff man, Sidney Crosby, who is recovering from surgery to repair a sports hernia.
Malkin has taken on that role, and executed it more effectively than he has at any point in his career.
He declined interview requests Wednesday, but his statistics speak eloquently of how well he's been doing.
After going 55-60 on draws during the first half-dozen games Crosby missed -- not all that different from his 30-31 mark in the six games in which both he and Crosby played -- Malkin went 95-61 in the next eight, including an 11-6 mark in the Penguins' 4-1 loss to Montreal Tuesday.
This from a guy who, in his previous 13 NHL seasons, had won just 43.8 percent of his faceoffs. Not that Malkin wasn't capable of better.
"When you have a guy with that skills set and that strength, when he makes the decision that he wants to win faceoffs, I think he can," Cullen said. "Honestly, with (Malkin), I think it's as simple as that. ... He's a guy who, when he decides he wants to be good at something, he can be good at it."
Malkin clearly has made that that determination since Crosby left the lineup, because he has pushed his success rate for the season up to 54.2 percent. That's second on the team only to Crosby's 55.4 percent.
"You can see he's putting more of an (emphasis) on it," Cullen said. "He's into it. You can see that he's paying attention to it, and that he cares about it."
Although Malkin likely will handle fewer draws after Crosby returns, Cullen believes he can continue to win a hefty share of them.
"I don't think there's any reason why he can't," he said. "Everybody goes through their ups-and-downs, but when he's determined in the circle, he's a hard guy to go against. I wouldn't want to take a faceoff against him, because he can beat you in so many ways."
Cullen, in his first season as a player development coach, again worked with the centers on handling draws Wednesday. He's a logical candidate for that duty, considering that during his 21-year NHL career, Cullen went 5,024-4,395 on draws, a success rate of 53.5 percent.
"I think he has the ability to share his experience with some of our younger centermen," Mike Sullivan said. "All of our centermen, for that matter."
It makes sense for the Penguins to focus on faceoffs, because when a team likes to play a puck-possession game, as they do, one of the easiest ways to get pucks is to win draws.
And there is ample room for improvement by the Penguins, who rank 20th in the NHL, with a success rate of 49.2 percent.
Crosby and Malkin are their only two forwards who have handled a significant number of draws and controlled more than half. Sam Laffery, who has won 47.8 percent, is third on the list, followed by Teddy Blueger (47.1) and Jared McCann (46.3).
"It's an area of the game where we believe we can get better," Sullivan said.
Malkin already has, and Cullen said there's no reason Malkin shouldn't continue to win a hefty percentage of his draws -- as long as his approach doesn't change.
And, given the tangible rewards that come from controlling faceoffs, Malkin has ample incentive to continue doing well.
"The bigger correlation is, winning all those draws, to put more pucks in the net, because you have the puck more," Cullen said. "He wins all those faceoffs, so he and (Jake Guentzel) and (Bryan Rust) have the puck on their sticks a lot more.
"And all of a sudden, we're on offense a lot more. That's good for the team. That's good for their line. That's good for the bottom line."