It can be argued that Tristan Jarry was the Pittsburgh Penguins most important player to return from injury.
The Pittsburgh Penguins lost on Sunday afternoon despite looking fairly competitive against a New Jersey Devils team that got the upper-hand back in December.
They stifled the Devils in the second period by only allowing two shots on goal and then played well enough in the third to take the game to overtime and earn a point.
While the Penguins need all the points they can get at the moment to maintain their slim playoff margin, their 2-8 overtime record this season isn’t doing them many favors in the standings. The difference in those few loser points could be a huge difference come April when the playoff brackets are officially formed.
The Penguins will play three of their next 10 games against either the Florida Panthers or the New York Islanders, the two teams closely trailing the Penguins for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Those are going to loom large.
Of course, having good goaltending can change the trajectory of a reeling team and that’s what we’re seeing in the past two contests for the Penguins.
Tristan Jarry was hurt in the Winter Classic at Fenway Park and ever since, Casey DeSmith had his first true shot at being the starter since his short lived stint last season heading into the playoffs.
DeSmith went 2-3-1 in his seven appearances during Jarry’s absence. He did not receive a decision in the Canucks game a few weeks back when he was pulled in favor of Dustin Tokarski after allowing three goals in just over seven minutes of play.
His 3.62 goals against average and .887 save percentage in that time clearly isn’t the type of performance the Penguins needed. To be fair, he played a few of those games with his three top defensemen in Kris Letang, Jeff Petry, and Marcus Pettersson out of the lineup.
But on multiple occasions, saves that you’d typically need your goalie to make were the ones DeSmith was allowing to beat him. Jarry minimizes that.
Jarry allowed yet another goal in the first minute on Sunday, a common theme this season for him. It’s a weird trend but a trend nonetheless. However, when he does allow one of the first few shots to beat him, he’s been able to recover quickly down the stretch and settle things down for the Penguins.
Jarry has earned the Penguins three of a possible four points in his first two games back with a 1.48 goals against average and a .957 save percentage.
He played one of the better games of his career on Friday night against the Ottawa Senators making a career-high 45 saves. Granted Ottawa isn’t a great team but they’ve got plenty of young talent and can certainly win games against anyone on any given night. Jarry, returning from his absence, looked like a world beater and was the Penguins’ best penalty-killer in that game.
Fast forward to Sunday and, again, Jarry looked up to the task for the Penguins. The lone regulation goal that beat him was the third shot of the game just 56 seconds in but it deflected off of Brian Dumoulin and got by Jarry. Otherwise, he made 23 saves and allowed a 3-on-3 overtime goal after the Penguins had their own game winner waived off because of a too-many men penalty.
Jarry has his flaws. He’s got many questions to answer about his playoff performance and availability. Currently, Jarry is without a contract next season. He’s probably a top-10 goalie in the NHL so letting him walk isn’t a great idea but signing him prematurely also doesn’t sound like a wonderful idea either.
At the end of the day, he makes the Penguins a better team at this very moment than they are with DeSmith or Tokarski in the net. If he, and the rest of the team can stay healthy, the Penguins should make the playoffs and see what happens from there.
If they’re forced to play another chunk of games without him, things may continue to go a bit south.
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