Tristan Jarry didn't lose this game.
No, the culprits were too many to count within the Penguins' lousier-than-the-score 3-1 loss to the Capitals on this Tuesday night inside PPG Paints Arena, where the seats were as empty as the effort put forth by the home team. There's seldom a single finger to point in such a setting, and there certainly wasn't one here with Washington running up a 42-27 edge in shots, 13-5 in high-danger chances.
And yet ...
And yet, if I'm coming clean with what bugged me most about this overall evening, it's this: Jarry didn't win this game, either.
I know, I know. That's unfair. It's unreasonable. He did make 39 saves, including several fine ones along the way.
But he didn't win. In fact, for the sixth time in nine starts, he lost. For the eighth time in nine starts, he allowed at least three goals.
Most worrisome by far, even amid some of those aforementioned high saves, it was the same issues costing him this game that have cost so many of the rest: He's planting his heels in the back of the crease, he's too slow to make himself tall after going down, and he's hesitant with the puck in a way I've never seen from him.
None of that changed here. None of it.
I wasn't just watching the goals or the shots. I rarely took my eyes off him, hoping to see something more than the occasional reflex. I didn't.
Four minutes into the game, here's Lars Eller with a short-handed dump that the 2019-20 Jarry would've dashed out and handled with ease:
Instead, because he's as passive there as he was on most of Washington's dumps, Jarry has to come up with an exceptional toe stop on Eller.
At 4:52 of the second period, here's the icebreaker from Conor Sheary:
Watch Jarry's heels. One doesn't need to be Jacques Plante to see how irrationally far back he's staying.
Go nuts and blame Mark Jankowski and/or Colton Sceviour for leaving Sheary loose like that -- either guy could've adjusted -- but the cold fact remains that it's an eminently stoppable shot by a goaltender who's reading the scene aggressively.
Jarry's just ... waiting for the worst, it seems.
Here's Jakub Vrana at 11:31:
Once more, go nuts and blame Mike Matheson for embarrassingly losing Vrana on what'd been an innocent two-on-two zone entry for Washington. T.J. Oshie's pass should never have found a friendly blade.
But watch Jarry's heels, too.
No wait, watch his heels on this one. And watch how he just keeps shrinking and shrinking in the net as the Capitals approach:
Some backing off is prescribed for goaltenders at all levels when a team's rushing. But not like that. Jarry might as well be banging the back of his head off the crossbar.
This, too, I should add, is an eminently stoppable shot. And I say that with respect to Vrana as a sharp shooter but while also noting that he didn't pick a corner but, instead, hits the center vertical bar.
"I was just trying to elevate it," Vrana would say later, almost apologetically.
I asked Jarry after the game, making clear it was in a general sense, what he and Mike Buckley, the Penguins' goaltending coach, have done to address the aggressiveness:
"I think it's just getting shots, getting out there early, making sure I'm working hard, seeing the puck, making sure I'm getting my timing," Jarry replied. "I think that's helped a lot."
OK.
I then asked Mike Sullivan, who's forever stressed getting the timely save from his goaltenders, how much it could help the Penguins to have the occasional game outright stolen by a goaltender, whether Jarry or Casey DeSmith. Seeing how, you know, that hasn't come close to happening even once a quarter of the way through this schedule.
"Well, certainly, when you get that type of goaltending, it can swing momentum. It can swing games, for sure. That's just the nature of the sport," he began. "Having said that, I thought Tristan played a solid game tonight. He certainly made some big saves for us."
No argument here. Solid game. Big saves.
Didn't win. Didn't do enough. Didn't reverse the overall course.
Go ahead and complain about my assessment in the moment, but I don't find much value in assessments in the moment, anyway. Patrick Roy was once scorched for nine goals in Montreal. Some Zamboni driver emerged from the stands to beat the Maple Leafs a couple winters ago. Stuff happens in the moment.
Sorry, but this isn't about any moment:
• Jarry's .875 save percentage is second-worst in the NHL, with only the Sharks' Martin Jones lower at .873.
• Before anyone cites the defense, whether performance or injuries, Jarry's .720 save percentage only on high-danger chances is second-worst in the NHL, with only the Canucks' Braden Holtby lower at .701.
• Further semi-absolving the defense, Jarry's faced an average of 3.2 rebound attempts per game, right at the league average.
• His 3.74 goals-against average is third-worst in the NHL, with only Jones and Holtby higher, both at 3.75.
• Getting super-advanced, his -7.5 GSAx -- expected goals against actual goals allowed, based on a formula weighing the quality and quantity of shots -- is sixth-worst.
• Making this so much worse, Casey DeSmith's .885 save percentage is far more reflective of his five starts than his 4-1 record, leaving the Penguins next-to-last in the NHL for team goaltending at .874. Only Matt Murray's Senators are worse at .870.
So, fire Buckley, since he coaches Jarry, DeSmith and Murray here?
Whatever, why not?
But that won't make a dent this season, and we were told upon the hirings of Ron Hextall and Brian Burke -- by them -- that this season is what matters to the organization, that their charge is to win a sixth Stanley Cup now and not later. Spoken in the clearest of terms.
As such, no action they take will be worthwhile if the goaltending isn't dramatically upgraded. Awaken the stars, shake up the lines, get some more D-men back, whatever else, and it's all a waste without it. For that matter, the goaltending represents the easiest/best fix that can be made, considering it's an organizational need, as well. Nothing would offer a bigger boost. Nothing would offer a better chance to offset -- or even reverse -- the broader issues.
Hextall and Burke can wait and hope that Jarry's glimpses the past couple games blossom into more. But they can't wait for long.
• Once more with gusto: Jarry didn't lose this game. If anyone interprets this column any differently, I've now placed that sentence in two separate locations for extra convenience.
• I'm anything but a Jarry basher. On the eve of the opener in Philadelphia, my column singled him out as the roster's possible brightest light, fresh off a breakthrough season that saw him finish in the league's top 10 in all major categories. Rewinding further, I fully supported the trade of Murray to give Jarry a chance.
I still hope he gets that chance, whether in Pittsburgh or elsewhere, whether as a starter or backup. But he's doing precious little with this one.
• Sports tend to be unpredictable, but the East Division standings are falling in near-perfect line with my expectations. In order at this very moment: Bruins, Islanders, Flyers, Capitals, Penguins, Devils, Rangers, Sabres. The isolated exception is that I still see the Islanders as having a chance to overtake the Bruins. That's it.
And should this scenario hold, the Penguins will need to outdo the Capitals for the fourth and final spot.
Which, from the Washington perspective, anyway, meant plenty. Several on that side spoke afterward of realizing where they are in the standings in relation to the Penguins, in addition to the Penguins having claimed the first three meetings, and Vrana went so far as to describe the Capitals as "hungrier."
The Pittsburgh perspective's far harder to figure. When Bryan Rust was asked over the weekend if the Penguins were watching the standings more closely in a shorter season, he acknowledged an awareness of the standings but downplayed the matter by saying, "We're mostly focused on ourselves."
When this game ended, I asked Teddy Blueger if the Penguins' issue here was one of not being able to match the Capitals' urgency, given the standings.
"I don't think so," he replied. "I thought the first period was pretty hard fought, some good battles. That second period was the one that got away from us."
To interrupt here: Got away from them?
By going down a couple goals?
And that's somehow supposed to excuse being outplayed for 50 full minutes?
"As far as urgency, I don't think so," Blueger concluded. "Points are tough to come by, regardless of whoever we're playing."
They're a lot tougher against the opponent that knows -- and embraces -- it's the one most likely to keep you out of the playoffs.
• Whatever brownie points these guys might've gained Sunday with the new front office, rest assured those were blown to bits. Hextall and Burke watched this one, too, and it'd be beyond astonishing if both weren't put off.
• Want to know who thinks the urgency was inadequate?
How about the head coach who keeps bumping Brandon Tanev up the depth chart?
Sullivan did that twice on this night, first for Jason Zucker, then for Kasperi Kapanen, both on the second line. And neither Sullivan nor any head coach anywhere does that for any reason other than to maximize effort. Or, maybe in this case, to compensate for the lack of effort put forth by the second line's center.
• Evgeni Malkin was minus-2 and pointless -- in both the literal and figurative senses -- and remained stuck a point behind Blueger in the team's scoring race. He's got three goals and four assists for seven points, one of which has come on the power play.
At what stage of the season will that become unacceptable?
• The Crosby line dominated Sunday but was a dud Tuesday, with the captain himself held to a single shot and, no, it wasn't that first-period whiff:
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Sidney Crosby can't bury this feed past the Capitals' Vitek Vanecek in the first period Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena.
The captain's got one five-on-five goal all season, and it was the empty-netter Sunday.
• When the stars don't go, nothing goes for this group. And it's been that way, really, since the stars began sputtering late in the abbreviated 2019-20 season. If extending back into that season, the Penguins now have six regulation victories in their past 29 games.
Six!
That's not because they're showing up with more urgency than their opponents or that they're "hungrier."
• It's not just the stars. The fourth line of Jankowski, Sceviour and Sam Lafferty logged roughly four minutes of five-on-five time and conceded five chances -- and the goal -- to the one they generated.
And specifically regarding Jankowski, since those fine first two games in Philadelphia, he's now the team's worst forward by a mile with a 40.0 Corsi For percentage at five-on-five. Be certain that his spot long since would've been assumed by Evan Rodrigues, who can't get back soon enough.
• Quick, name this team's MVP to date.
Too late, time's up.
• By far the coolest thing about that Zach Aston-Reese goal near the end -- his third in as many games, by the way -- was that, the instant he scored, you could hear the security guys and ice workers cheer. And no one else. Kind of stuff I'll never forget about pandemic hockey.
• Seeing this place still empty stinks. I get that we're not through this pandemic, and I get the poor optics of allowing even a few fans into mega-events while small businesses struggle. But the moment fans are allowed here, that creates service jobs, too. And the team's reasonable ongoing appeal to the commonwealth -- seating at 25% capacity -- seems like it'd be safe for all concerned.
Let's get moving here.
• Hextall and Burke can feel free to get moving, too. What they've seen to date is already as representative of this group -- good and bad -- as it gets. Especially at the very back end.
• One final time to everyone: Thank you.
