WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- A shutout in Montreal, a shutout in Toronto, and now, on the Penguins' third and final stop of this Canadian trip ... hey, how about whatever it takes to ensure an exceptionally satisfying YWG-PIT charter flight home?
"Oh, yeah, it'd feel great," Marcus Pettersson replied to my question on that subject Monday at Canada Life Centre after the morning skate in advance of the meeting tonight -- 8:38 p.m. Eastern time faceoff -- with the 9-4-4 Jets. "We're coming off two defensively solid games against two dynamic teams, and this opponent's gonna be no different. I mean, going through a rough stretch before, if we can finish off this trip and feel really good about ourselves going home, it's gonna be huge."
"They're a really good team over there, with some great offensive weapons, so I'm just going to focus on this game," Teddy Blueger replied to basically my same question. "And hopefully, maybe, on the flight back, we can reflect on the trip."
It'd really be something.
The benefits of two points wouldn't just be intangible, of course. The Penguins would return with no worse than a tie for fourth place in the eight-team Metropolitan Division at 8-6-4, a far cry from the cellar they'd been sniffing just a week earlier.
But the intangibles wouldn't hurt. This is a collective that's been injured, ill and short-handed on every front except effort to date. Especially through the recent 2-6-2 downturn that Pettersson referenced, they'd have been easily forgiven for wondering what the reward might be for all the extra work. Instead, they've gradually gotten players back, those players have gradually raised their own levels, and the various facets -- offense, defense, special teams, goaltending -- have done likewise.
Yeah, even the power play, despite still being ranked last in the NHL with an 11.5% conversion rate.
"We're just trying to focus on the process," Mike Sullivan answered after the skate when I brought that up. "We've had stretches here where we feel like we're doing all the little things you need to have success, like winning faceoffs, like puck retrieval, like release plays, like puck support off the retrievals so that we can keep possession in the offensive zone."
He's right. They've been quite strong at this for more than a week now. But 2-for-31 over the past 11 games doesn't lie.
What's next?
"We're trying to shoot the puck. We're looking for the point shot. We're trying to get net traffic," Sullivan said. "All of those little things, I think, give the power play an opportunity to be at its best."
This, like the previous stop against the Maple Leafs, who'd won 10 of 11, won't be easy. Although the Jets lost their past two games, Paul Maurice and his players universally declared their back-to-back set with the Oilers last week, a 5-2 victory here and a 2-1 shootout loss in Edmonton, their most complete hockey of the young season.
And that's to say nothing of their goaltender. Right after facing the Maple Leafs' Jack Campbell, the NHL's leader in nearly every goaltending category, the Penguins now see Connor Hellebuyck, a Vezina Trophy winner who's gone 6-0-4 in his past 10 starts -- he and Tristan Jarry have the shootout shortcoming in common -- and would set a franchise record with another point procured tonight for 11 games in a row.
But the Jets' weakness mirrors the Penguins' in that they rank 31st in the 32-team league in penalty-killing, so maybe there's some positive alignment to be had there for the visitors.
Or not.
"Our overall numbers won't show it, but I feel like we've really gotten stronger on the PK," Maurice said of the Jets.
Maurice sounded legit impressed by the Penguins and Jarry, by the way, upon watching video of their work in Montreal and particularly Toronto.
"I thought they earned it," Maurice said of the latter. "That was a right game by them. Their goaltender has to be good to get a shutout in the NHL, and he's been really good. They're right on pucks. There isn't any cheat in their game. They're playing hard."
One more of those up here, and they can recline the seat all the way back with a smile.
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Jarry will start again tonight, Sullivan announced after the skate, marking his fifth in a row and 10th in the past 11 games.
That can't surprise anyone, considering his personal shutout streak, extending to the 2-1 loss to the Sabres six days ago at PPG Paints Arena, is at 151:06. That's just 26:09 away from matching the franchise record of 177:15 he set himself Nov. 29-Dec. 10, 2019.
Sullivan acknowledged, in a rarity, that this was a deviation from the goaltending schedule/plan he and the staff put together with Andy Chiodo.
"It had a lot to do with the decision we made tonight, for sure," Sullivan said of Jarry's recent run. "And that's always why when we're planning the workload of the goaltenders, we always etch it in pencil. For that reason. Because performance matters. We're always trying to keep an eye on the big picture while also making the best decisions that we can for the team in the short run. And so, Tristan's had a few really strong showings, and that had a lot to do with the decision that we made tonight."
And regarding Casey DeSmith, who hasn't played since Nov. 13 in Ottawa: "Well, that's one of the challenges, right? I don't think there's any right or wrong answer. It's a matter of knowing your players and understanding situations. ... I've never been one to believe in keeping our backup goaltender out for extended periods of time, because I don't believe that puts the goaltender in the best possible position to be at his best when he does get in. So, we're trying to find a balance. And performance matters."
DeSmith's 0-2-1 with a 4.71 goals-against average and .856 save percentage.
• The skate was full-participation, with the Penguins having been off here Sunday, and the lines and pairings were as follows:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Carter-Kapanen
Simon-Rodrigues-Heinen
Aston-Reese-Blueger-McGinn
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
The three healthy scratches, thus, again are expected to be Brian Boyle, Sam Lafferty and Mark Friedman.
• The Jets' skate was full, too, even though they practiced yesterday and even though Maurice expressed concern over the weekend about possible fatigue, as his team's making a one-game stop here in the middle of what'd otherwise be a five-game road trip touching all four time zones: Edmonton, Vancouver, Columbus, St. Paul, Calgary.
Their lines and pairings were as follows:
Copp-Scheifele-Ehlers
Connor-Dubois-Wheeler
Harkins-Lowry-Svechnikov
Toninato-Nash-Vesalainen
Morrissey-Schmidt
Dillon-Pionk
Stanley-DeMelo
The only injury absence will be veteran center Paul Stastny.
• Never be like this guy:
• Talk to everyone later on the live file.
