Malone just disguised his better, and never hit anyone in the soft spot that MWP did.
The one on Thomas may have been by mistake, but I'm not sure. The one on Nash was for sure intentional. Don't sugar coat it. I still like Malone, but the dude used force with his elbow. Just because he covered it up in the setting of "making a basketball play" doesn't make it acceptable. If someone did that to Stockton, you would be up in arms about how dirty a play it was.
But keep living in denial that Malone didn't have his fair share of "dirty" moments.