Tristan Jarry has could make or break the Pittsburgh Penguins season and he is yet to appear fully ready.
PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Penguins are running out of runway on the 2022-23 season and while their chances of reaching the postseason look good, their goaltending situation remains spotty.
Between injuries and and a severe trend of inconsistency, the Penguins haven’t gotten enough from their starting netminder.
For the second time in a week, Tristan Jarry was pulled after allowing four goals in the first period to a team that in no way, shape, or form should be giving him that kind of trouble.
Casey DeSmith was able to save the day against the Columbus Blue Jackets and help the Penguins crawl back to a victory, but they weren’t as lucky against the Montreal Canadiens.
Jarry holds a 20-7-6 record this year, but he hasn’t looked like the same goalie since missing significant time with what has been revealed to be a chronic hip issue.
In his last five outings, Jarry has allowed four goals four times; heading into the contest against the Canadiens, he had a goals against average of 2.86.
With numbers like that, it seems like Jarry is still working his way back from the injury; according to Mike Sullivan, it’s not the injury slowing Jarry down.
“He’s fine from a health standpoint,” Sullivan said. “We’re just trying to get him up to speed on the fly. It’s a bit of a challenge. We’re trying to get him reps in practice. We’re doing our best there.”
Given the point of the season the Penguins are at, it’s not the ideal situation to have your starting goalie still trying to get up to full speed.
The Penguins have 15 games remaining and need as many points in the standings as possible; they sit in the Eastern Conference wild card and are likely not catching the New York Rangers for third in the Metropolitan Division.
Sullivan says ‘concerning’ isn’t the right word to use in this situation, but that’s exactly what this is.
Jarry has yet to prove his full potential in the postseason and the Penguins straight up cannot enter another postseason with questions surrounding the health or ability of their goalie.
“He’s had a challenging year,” Sullivan said. “This is just circumstantial. Nobody can really control that. We just have to control what we can.”
Sullivan did say that while the Canadiens didn’t get a lot of chances against Jarry (he gave up four goals on seven shots) the ones they did get were high quality.
“I think our team as a whole needs to do a better job.”
Also true, but there is clearly a trend with Jarry right now; far too many goals on far too few shots.
When Jarry is good, he’s possibly steal a playoff series good, but when he’s bad he’s prone to giving up four goals in a period.
At this moment, the Penguins are seeing a lot more of the bad than the good.
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