Tim Benz: Tristan Jarry fixed a lot of problems for the Penguins, until he created a few himself
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For the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night, simply getting Tristan Jarry back in goal seemed to cure a lot of the ills that had been plaguing them of late. Until he caught the germs.
On Monday night, the Penguins’ top netminder played his first game since Jan. 22 against the New York Islanders.
New York didn’t score a goal in the opening moments. That’s something that had been happening a lot with Casey DeSmith and Dustin Tokarski in net.
Shortly after the Penguins scored a power-play goal to take a 2-1 lead in the second period, they allowed what has become a typical, glorious scoring chance moments later to give momentum right back. But Jarry made a great blocker save on Zach Parise.
At the end of the second, the Penguins looked like they were on the verge of yielding yet another late-period goal — a trademark of these Pens lately. But during a helter-skelter flurry of activity in front of his crease, Jarry kept the door closed.
All of those things have been such problem spots for the Penguins, and within one game back, Jarry seemed to be solving all of them.
Except for blowing third-period leads.
And losing to teams in their own division.
Because midway through the third period, Jarry was stung by a Bo Horvat shot that got him in the neck. A few minutes later, Jarry didn’t quite seal off the post to his left, allowing the game-tying goal on a short-side, bad-angle wrister from Horvat.
BO KNOWS! pic.twitter.com/JgEy1IBHZa
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) February 21, 2023
A few minutes later, Jarry made a costly turnover that led to the go-ahead goal from Anders Lee.
The Captain! The lead! pic.twitter.com/A1pKJRy9I2
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) February 21, 2023
Brock Nelson would score an empty-net goal with 25 seconds remaining, and the Pens lost 4-2. It was their third straight defeat overall and ninth in a row to a Metropolitan Division foe.
“They got some life off tying the game,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said after the loss. “We were all over them. They’re on their heels, and they get a goal. They get a little bit of life. That’s normal. There are ebbs and flows in games and momentum shifts. Obviously, we don’t want to give up goals. They can get momentum and get life from tying the game like that. But we don’t want to give up the next one.”
Jarry stopped 28 of 31 shots before the empty-netter.
“It’s very hard to replicate any type of game scenario when you’re off the ice,” Jarry said. “So I think that was just the toughest challenge is being able to keep conditioning up and making sure I’m ready to play.”
In the other net, Ilya Sorokin made 44 saves on 46 shots for the Islanders. After the game, head coach Mike Sullivan largely praised Jarry. But he echoed Jarry’s point about game-conditioning, especially as the contest went into the third period.
“When he is at his best, he probably doesn’t give up the goals late,” Sullivan said. “But to his defense, he hasn’t played in a while. So we are trying to get him into game shape. It’s almost like baptism by fire.”
Jarry shouldn’t have to be perfect. Fixing all of the Penguins’ problems shouldn’t have to be all about him either. But the Penguins are sinking fast. They have now fallen out of a playoff spot, down to ninth place (63 points). Both the Islanders (65 points) and Florida Panthers (64) leapfrogged them into the Eastern Conference wild-card spots with their wins Monday.
“It (stinks) losing right now, the way we’re losing. Nobody’s happy,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “But we believe in each other. The only way we’re going to get out of this is together with what we have in this room.”
Pettersson may be more right than he knows. Given the Penguins’ salary cap constraints, it’s going to be nearly impossible for general manager Ron Hextall to reshape the team substantially between now and the NHL’s March 3 trade deadline.
Or, come to think of it, maybe Pettersson does know and is basically just telling us something we all should’ve been aware of in the first place.
And getting Jarry back can’t solve that problem. In fact, he may have been the last of cavalry to come for this squad.
For one night, the results were improved, but still not good enough.
Tim Benz and Brian Metzer host their weekly hockey podcast and discuss the Penguins’ losing streak, Tristan Jarry’s return and the state of the Eastern Conference.