Just as it was starting to seem like there might be a larger problem at hand, Mike Sullivan announced Tristan Jarry will return from injury and start in goal when the Penguins host the Islanders here at PPG Paints Arena Monday.
There were signs that Jarry was close to returning from his upper-body injury a week ago in San Jose after multiple practices with the team in which he looked to be 100%, but he remained sidelined, then missed a practice and the following two games.
On Saturday, Sullivan said Jarry visited with multiple doctors, including outside consultants on his injury. Whatever came of that, Jarry's now ready to go.
"We're always trying to put the player in the best possible position to be successful when he returns to the game situations," Sullivan said after Monday's morning skate. "The return-to-play plan, I thought, that was put in place was really sound. They ramped it up to get it more game-like as his sessions went on. The most recent ones, he was dealing with a lot of traffic and things of that nature that he's gonna be forced to deal with in a game, and he's handled it extremely well.
"His conditioning, his timing, his ability to track the puck, all of that gets better with each session that he has. Everyone feels strongly that he's in a position right now where he can help us."
Jarry has missed 16 of the last 18 games, and the Penguins have felt the blow in his absence, winning just eight of those games.
He did not formally speak with the media after the skate, but did crack a joke about running to Twitter to let everyone know that he was the first goalie off the ice, of course signaling that he would start in goal before Sullivan later confirmed.
Although the Penguins have a bit of a daunting road ahead regardless of who's in goal, it's hard to ignore Jarry's 16-5-5 record this season. He has a .921 save percentage, 2.65 goals against average and 9.2 goals saved above expected based on the quality of chances he's faced, per Evolving-Hockey.
"When he's been in the net this year, he's been really solid for us," Sullivan said. "We're anxious to get him back in the net. He's feeling good, he's feeling strong and we're excited to get him back."
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• It hasn't happened yet, but Dustin Tokarski will have to be re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL at some point today before Jarry is activated because the Penguins are at the maximum of 23 players on the roster. He doesn't need waivers to be sent down.
• Not a single player was missing from the morning skate. Full participation.
• Jan Rutta (upper-body, long-term injured reserve) was out there, but skated on a fourth defense pairing during line rushes and won't be available Monday night.
• Ryan Poehling (nagging upper-body injury) skated, but stood off to the side during line rushes and won't be available, either.
• Mark Friedman skated with the team for the first time since suffering an injury in Los Angeles on Feb. 11. He skated on the extra defense pairing with Rutta during line rushes.
• No changes in status for Rutta, Poehling or Friedman, per Sullivan.
• The only change to the Penguins' workflow from Saturday's loss to the Devils was flipping Brock McGinn back to the third line for Drew O'Connor:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Drew O'Connor - Teddy Blueger - Josh Archibald
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel
Mark Friedman - Jan Rutta (extras)
• The power-play units remained unchanged.
PP1: Crosby, Guentzel, Rakell, Malkin, Letang
PP2: Malkin, Zucker, Rust, Kapanen, Petry
• The Islanders announced center Mat Barzal will be out indefinitely with a lower-body injury, so the Penguins will avoid him Monday.
• Here are the Islanders' forward lines from their morning skate:
Anders Lee - Bo Horvat - Simon Holmström
Zach Parise - Brock Nelson - Kyle Palmieri
Hudson Fasching - Casey Cizikas - Arnaud Durandeau
Ross Johnston - Andy Andreoff - Matt Martin
• Ilya Sorokin was the first goalie off the ice at morning skate and is expected to start for the Islanders. He's been one of the best goalies in the NHL this season despite what his record suggests. He's 18-17-5 with a .923 save percentage, 2.44 goals against average and a whopping 36.8 goals saved above expected.
• Puck drops against the Islanders at 7:08 p.m. Monday night at PPG Paints Arena. I'll be there with Taylor Haase for your coverage.
