Pittsburgh Penguins' Evgeni Malkin day-to-day with upper-body injury

Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin missed Friday night's game against the Ottawa Senators with an upper-body injury.

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan ruled Malkin out for the weekend, including Friday's contest against the Senators, and labeled the 32-year-old forward as day-to-day.

"Right now he's day-to-day with an upper-body injury," Sullivan said. "He will not play tonight or this weekend. We are hopeful that this is a short-term thing and he'll be back in our lineup soon."

Pittsburgh forward Matt Cullen took over as alternate captain Friday in Malkin's absence.

Malkin last played Wednesday and had two assists against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4-2 victory. He joined Mario Lemieux (1,033), Sidney Crosby (741) and Jaromir Jagr (640) as the fourth player in Penguins history to tally at least 600 assists.

Malkin became the fourth Russia-born player in league history with at least 600 assists, joining Sergei Fedorov (696), Sergei Zubov (619) and Pavel Datsyuk (604).

The seven-time All-Star has 55 points (14 goals, 41 assists) in 50 games this season. Malkin had 15 points (two goals, 13 assists) in his last 11 contests.