Kovacevic: Too soon to believe in the goaltending? Yeah, sure, but ...

From Miro Heiskanen's blade to Jacob Peterson's to ... a city rebonding with its only recently gutted goaltender?

Eh. We'll see.

But two truths that can be spoken with certainty about Tristan Jarry after the Penguins' 2-1 shootout loss to the Stars on this Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena is that this were, one, this was a hell of a save:

And two, that sound that can be heard in the background on the ensuing counter was, indeed, the crowd chanting, 'JAR-RY! JAR-RY!'

Nothing not to love about that, right?

Yeah?

Hello?

Never mind. Let's ask Mike Sullivan instead.

"Oh, everybody feels good for him," the coach came back when asked to describe that sequence and scene. "Everybody understands the position he's in. And anytime the crowd gets behind our guys, I think it gives our whole bench a boost. Not to mention that particular player. I didn't speak to Tristan after the game, but I'm sure he was very appreciative of it."

He probably was, though he didn't exactly overstate any individual impact.

"I think the fans play a huge role in the game and the outcome," Jarry replied when asked about that chant. "I think they keep us in it and do a great job every night, bringing their all, and that motivates us and makes us want to bring our all every game."

He stopped 28 of 29 shots in this one, 11 of those on high-danger scoring chances.

"I thought he had a strong game," Sullivan proceeded. "They had a number of pretty good chances, and I thought he made some big saves. You know, I think he's ..."

Slight pause.

"I watch his body language a lot. You can learn a lot from a player's body language. And when you're around him as much as I am, you can really understand it. And I think his body language right now exudes confidence. He's seeing the puck. He's tracking the puck. His goalie handles, when he goes out for pucks, are improving every game. And I thought he made some timely saves for us. That's certainly a positive sign."

Wait, exudes what?

Look, I won't take this too far. My own stance on the state of the franchise's goaltending couldn't have been made clearer over the course of the summer, and I'll stubbornly reiterate right here that none of this means much come the morning of the next Game 1. Because, as hockey history's shown for a century-plus, the only way to succeed in the Stanley Cup playoffs ... is to succeed in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

That said, the same history shows, as Brian Burke was reminding me at a practice the other day in Sunrise, Fla., that goaltenders can and often do bounce back from playoff adversity. Particularly younger goaltenders. And take that from a reporter who, several years ago on Long Island, witnessed one of those types repeatedly and for-real ramming his forehead off a locker-room wall, this after losing his playoff starting status to Tomas Vokoun. It was a scary scene back then, but I'm thinking Marc-Andre Fleury turned out OK.

Jarry's 26. He's experienced a grand total of seven playoff games since breaking through with the Penguins a half-decade ago. That's it. Not enough to fill a glove hand and a blocker.

And since his almost singular first-round flop against the Islanders this past May, all he's done is report to camp with a healthy smile, a healthy approach to working with a new goaltending coach in Andy Chiodo and, best of all, some seriously healthy goaltending through three starts:

• 2-0-1 record
• 1.65 goals-against average
• .935 save percentage

Here's another one from the advanced analytics pool, and it's the most telling of all: Jarry's now got a 4.66 Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx) figure, third-best in the NHL behind the 6.2 of the Panthers' Sergei Bobrovsky and the 5.2 of the Rangers' Igor Shesterkin. Without getting into all kinds of geeky gobbledygook -- that's always best left to Taylor Haase in this operation! -- this statistic takes into account the quality of the shot and the quality of the defending occurring in front of the goaltender. It's a real catch-all.

It's also really early. And nothing means less in any statistical context than a small sample size.

But then, consider the hypothetical opposite. Meaning if he stunk. Picture the scenario, both outside and even inside the organization, had this opening couple of weeks to the 2021-22 season gone differently at this position for this team, then maybe this can be seen as a legit positive.

Yeah?

Hello?

Never mind.

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

Tristan Jarry juts out his left leg pad to thwart the Stars' Tyler Seguin in the third period Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena.

• Rip my eyeballs from their respective sockets the next time I'm tasked with watching a team play the way the Stars did here, backpedaling upon any forfeiture of possession, packing the vertical middle, standing still and wiggling their sticks and ... I can't.

Few hockey subjects light my fire like this one, and that's been the case forever. When any team or coach takes this beautiful sport and clips its wings, it sickens me to the stomach. Maybe now more than ever, since it's been a decade and a half since the NHL finally found ways to prevent the Devils and a few other clones from dragging everything down, and it's awful to think what'd happen if anyone succeeded -- as in, really succeeded -- playing like this.

And that goes double when a team's got a roster with as much talent as Dallas still has. The Stars were in the Cup Final two years ago, and that core's still together. To boot, Rick Bowness has no history of this trash, as a couple veteran observers in the press box noted.

Did this decree come from above?

And whether it did or now, does anyone associated with that organization really think it'll help sell hockey in Texas, which still isn't a slam dunk?

When someone asked Bowness after this game about all the close games to date, he replied, "There's a lot more coming."

Whatever. Not my problem. The Stars are 2-2 after giving up only nine total goals and yippee for them.

• If ESPN's forced to air a single game this team plays, it should reserve the rights to rip up its new contract with the NHL.

• Ironically, one of the best examples I can offer of the Stars' approach was the Penguins' lone goal, by John Marino:

Yeah, it was the end of a long shift for the Stars. And yeah, Alexander Radulov, who's 35, looks like he's on the cusp of a collapse. But that's how they defended all evening, allowing the Penguins to do pretty much whatever they wanted on the perimeter and focusing entirely on spitting out anyone or anything that penetrated.

It took the terrific effort seen above from Marino to dip around one defender, then pounce on a rebound that he roofed over Braden Holtby.

I asked Sullivan if, even though he might not face another team doing this all season, this was the best way to beat it.

"Yeah," he replied. "And that's the type of game that we're trying to establish, that we can wear teams down with our puck possession and our puck pursuit and generate opportunities. We were able to get a line change in the middle of that, so we were able to out-change them. It was the second period, so they were a long way from their bench. You can use fatigue as an advantage."

• Amazing:

More amazing: I'm almost sure not a single call was missed.

• Marino's got four points in as many games, but don't think for a second offense is an emphasis. On the contrary, Sullivan and Todd Reirden have been pushing relentlessly for him to build -- or rebuild after a wobbly 2021 season -- his game from the back out. Much like Reirden oversaw with Kris Letang several years ago. Whatever else comes, in the staff's collective mind, is a bonus.

• Sweet backhand roofer to the back bar by Radulov, sealing the shootout:

Knew what he wanted to do the whole 100 feet. The only adjustment was going to come if Jarry had been excessively aggressive, as he was on Joe Pavelski just before that. But Jarry instead backed up ... and Radulov still had the slick stick to make it seem that simple.

Beautiful.

Let 'em play, Coach.

• Kasperi Kapanen needs to keep playing well ... and finally score. Just not bearing down when it's time to shoot.

• Anyone else loving the new Teddy Blueger line?

• Everyone involved would've preferred two points, but there's no daylight between this performance and the Penguins' first three in starting out 2-0-2. Same push, same persistence.

Hear this from Michael Raffl, scorer of the Stars' first goal: "I thought Pittsburgh played an outstanding game. They're hard to play against, they work, they're smart and they're fast. We came out and found a way to win."

And this from Sullivan: "When we have a full complement of players, I think that part of the identity of this team is our ability to have a quick-strike attack. And with some of the guys we have out of our lineup, we may not be as threatening in that aspect of our game. That's probably obvious."

It is. These four games have seen golden chances go to players who can't come close to finishing.

"But I think right now, we're playing a simplified version of our identity, and we're giving ourselves a chance to win each and every night. We've liked the way our team has progressed. I love the attitude, the energy, the compete level. We've just got to build on the positives."

• The Maple Leafs are next. The variance in styles between that opponent and this one will have local ERs overflowing with whiplash victims. But honestly, I've got a feeling that it'll be a better matchup for the home team. More to the liking, anyway.

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

View from the press box of the crowd of 16,450 Tuesday night.

There'd been zero doubt within the Penguins that their 14-year sellout streak would end this season, and that's what happened on this night with a crowd of 16,450, about 2,000 shy of capacity. And this despite a hard push to pack the place that included a return of the Student Rush promotion, an unusual level of advertising and more.

Oh, well.

Where I sit, there are no negatives to one of the NHL's smaller markets selling every single ticket for 633 regular-season and playoff games dating back to Feb. 14 2007 and the Civic Arena. It was going to take something the scope of a global pandemic to end it and, as we've seen with attendance across professional sports -- even the Steelers, for crying out loud -- normalcy isn't all the way back.

As I've been writing for more than a year now to all things related to the pandemic ... we're getting there.

• On that note, exactly a month from now, I'll be flying a jet to a very good place I haven't seen in far too long. That's when it'll all start feeling really real for me.

For now, I'm taking the rest of this week off. Beyond beat, plus it's a bye week for the Steelers, and the Penguins aren't too active, either.

Oh, and don't listen to this one if from Dallas: