BY JOHN JEANSONNE

Translations and legal interpretations are ongoing, but 20-year-old Pittsburgh Penguin phenom forward Evgeni Malkin arrives at Nassau Coliseum tonight already fluent in hockey, this year's Sidney Crosby.

"He's good," said Viktor Kozlov, one of two Islanders who has played alongside Malkin on Russia's national team. "Fast, skates well, smart player, can compete with guys one-on-one. We first played together in the world championships during the lockout season [2004] and, back then, he already was good."

Just recovered from a shoulder separation suffered a month ago, Malkin made his National Hockey League debut last night against the Devils and scored his first goal. When they were on the same side during February's Turin Olympics, Islanders Kozlov and Alexei Yashin were impressed with Malkin, who was Russia's second-leading scorer.

It's just that the contractural and political intrigue surrounding Malkin's late-summer arrival in Pittsburgh are such that Yashin said he "can't comment, because I don't know the whole story." Not that anyone else does, either.

The No. 2 pick in the 2004 draft, Malkin last season scored 47 points in 46 games for Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the Russian professional league and, according to Kozlov, told fellow national team players in Turin that he would be coming to North America later in the year. The Russian Hockey Digest reported Metallurg general manager Gennady Velichkin cited president Vladimir Putin's policy on keeping natural resources in the country and said he knew "secrets" that would guarantee Malkin stayed put.

But in early August, when Metallurg traveled to Finland for a tournament, Malkin slipped off to the U.S. embassy in Helsinki and caught a flight to the United States.

Malkin doesn't speak English, but Kozlov -- who was in the same predicament when he joined the San Jose Sharks in 1994 -- assured that Malkin will be fine. Veteran Pittsburgh defenseman Sergei Gonchar serves as Malkin's teammate, translator and landlord.