If you ask Tristan Jarry, the only thing that really matters from the Penguins' 2-0 win over the Predators at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night is the two points gained in the standings.
"The two points are huge," said Jarry. "That's all we're going for at this time of year. Every time we go on the ice, we want to put our best game forward and I think we were able to do that tonight. We needed the points and I think that helps us a lot."
That was Jarry responding to a question on his 28-save shutout performance and the feeling he has after a game like that during such an important time of year.
He was his usual even-keeled self, not showing much emotion. That sometimes gets mistaken for apathy, but it's not. That's just his demeanor. His insistence on only speaking in terms of "we" and the team as a whole is pretty standard, too. It's often like pulling teeth trying to get Jarry to talk about himself, especially after a win, it seems.
Jarry might not want to focus too much on it, but what Thursday's win meant for him as an individual can't be ignored.
Beyond the much-needed individual success, this was a milestone game for Jarry. It was his 200th regular-season game played in the NHL. He surpassed Matt Murray (199 games) for the fifth-most games by a goaltender in franchise history. The only goaltenders to ever suit up more for the Penguins are Marc-Andre Fleury (691), Tom Barrasso (460), Denis Herron (290) and Ken Wregget (212).
Jarry has fared pretty well in those 200 games, earning 115 wins. There have only been 20 goaltenders in NHL history to record more wins through their first 200 games, and only three of them who are still active -- Murray (118), Andrei Vasilevskiy (118) and Frederik Andersen (116).
It took Jarry longer than he would have liked to hit that 200-game mark. His injury problems this year have been well-chronicled. He first acknowledged playing through some physical limitations back in mid-November. He suffered a lower-body injury in the Winter Classic on Jan. 2 and returned three weeks later, then played two more games before suffering an upper-body injury on Jan. 22. He returned on Feb. 20, and at times seemed to still be hampered by some kind of injury. He was then unavailable even as backup for the Penguins' game March 23 in Dallas. Casey DeSmith got that start, then got the next two as well -- Saturday against the Capitals then Tuesday in Detroit -- with Jarry dressing as backup.
It's not totally clear how much of those starts for DeSmith were a result of his good showings against the Stars and Capitals, and how much of it was due to Jarry needing some more time to get back up to 100%. Regardless of the reason, Jarry went eight days between starts. It was a brief respite from the game, one that Mike Sullivan thinks was a real benefit to him.
"He got some quality work with (Andy Chiodo) in practice," Sullivan said Thursday. "That's an important aspect of the preparation process, so that he can be at his best. We're trying to find those windows of opportunity where we can get him those types of reps. I thought he looked really sharp tonight."
Jarry felt that benefit, too.
"Anytime you can get away from it for a little bit, it takes a little bit of stress off of you," said Jarry. "You're able to just prepare your game and work on the things you need to in practice. Then every time I get in net it's fortunate, I want to do the best I can and help the team."
Jarry definitely helped tonight. His teammates definitely did a great job of making things easier in front of him, too. The Penguins were dominant in the second period and limited the Predators to only five shots on goal. They were very good at limiting the Predators' chances from the high-danger areas (something that was a big issue last game in Detroit) and held the Predators to just six high-danger attempts all game, while managing to record 25 of their own.
But when Jarry was seriously tested, he stepped up. One of his best moments was a third-period breakaway save on Predators first-line winger Philip Tomasino, a save that elicited loud "JAR-RY!" chants from the crowd:
"I thought Jars played real well," Sullivan said. :I don't think they had a lot of quality looks, but the ones that they did, I thought Jars made a couple real good saves. They had a clear-cut breakaway (from Tomasino) in the third period he makes a great save on. He was there when we needed him. But I thought the team as a whole defended hard. I thought we did a much better job defending the scoring area. That was something that we talked about this morning, and that's an area where I know we're very capable when we're when we're locked in. That's an important element of playing winning hockey at this time of year."
Jarry's teammates effused praise for his performance too.
"It was great," said Brian Dumoulin. "He made some really, really timely saves for us. He was very, very confident in front of the net, he didn't give them any second looks or opportunities. It's great to see, he's such a tremendous goaltender. He's really good at playing the puck, it helps us out, especially against a hard forecheck like that. He had a tremendous effort tonight."
The adjective Jake Guentzel opted for was "unbelievable."
"He's working hard," Guentzel went on to add of Jarry. "We have all the confidence in the world in him. He's obviously just a world-class goaltender. Hopefully he smiles now and has some fun."
It'd take more than a good individual game or two to get Jarry to loosen up and smile like some other players do. If the Penguins want to go anywhere this postseason, it'll require Jarry staying healthy and putting forth performances like this one. If the Penguins can find something special and make a real run here, then we might see some of that emotion out of Jarry.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Islanders were off Thursday night and the Panthers beat the Canadiens, 5-2. So, nothing changed in the wild card race. The Islanders still have a three-point lead on the Penguins for the top wild card spot and the Panthers sit one point behind the Penguins for the second wild card spot.
• Attendance was 17,482. Not quite a sellout for PPG Paints Arena, which holds 18,187 for hockey.
• Dumoulin did something so crazy on Zucker's goal it warranted its own Freeze Frame.
• Guentzel scored the Penguins' other goal, redirecting a shot-pass from Rickard Rakell on the power play:
"We talked about it right before," Guentzel said of that play. "He drew the defenders to Sid, and then put it right on my tape. So, that one was nice. I'll take those."
• The Penguins outshot the Predators 45-28. Shots in the second period alone were 15-5.
• The power play went 1-for-4 and the penalty-kill went a perfect 3-for-3.
"I just think it boils down to details," Sullivan said of the Penguins' success shorthanded. "When we're on the same page, I thought we pressured pucks at the right time. It was collective pressure. I thought we made the entries difficult. We were stingy on the entries. I thought we did a pretty good job there. I still think we can improve in the faceoff circle, especially winning that opening draw. It's such an important aspect of the penalty kill."
• Sidney Crosby led with nine shots on goal, a season-high. His previous season-high was eight shots, accomplished twice -- Dec. 3 against the Blues and March 12 against the Rangers.
• Ryan Poehling won't show up on the scoresheet but I thought this was one of his best games. He had a couple of legitimate scoring chances off of seriously skilled plays, including a shorthanded chance that was a product of his speed. His five shots on goal were a season-high for him. His six scoring chances (an actual metric, not an opinion) were second on the team in this game behind Crosby's nine. His individual expected goals was .75, also second to only Crosby's 1.55.
• Sullivan said Thursday morning that he'd anticipate Mikael Granlund having some "extra juice" in his first game against his former team since the trade. He didn't get on the scoresheet either, but that juice was definitely there. He's always been a pass-first guy looking to make a play first, sometimes to a fault, passing up easy shots he should be taking himself. We've seen that pretty often since the trade. He attempted five shots tonight, all of which made it through and counted as a shot on goal. If he can play like he's playing the Predators every night, this trade might start to look a little better.
• Speaking of juice ... Juuse Saros. He was outstanding in net for Nashville with 43 saves, including some big robberies on Crosby with his pad. He and the Predators are at a bit of an interesting situation right now. The Predators are going to be going into some level of a rebuild soon, and if they actually want to get bad and do it right, Saros standing on his head might be counterproductive toward that. It might help Nashville to move him. Plus, the Predators do have a really, really good young goaltending prospect in the pipeline in Yaroslav Askarov. Saros has two years left on his contract that carries a $5 million cap hit and no trade protection. The undrafted free agent market is totally devoid of good No. 1 goaltenders. Saros, at 27 years old and with a cap hit only $1.5 million more than what Jarry makes now, could be a really intriguing trade target. The Predators would likely want future assets like picks and/or prospects, and he'd be worth that cost. Something to think about.
• I've joked before that you can often look at the game notes before a game, identify the biggest guy on the opposition, and already know that he's going to be Mark Friedman's target as a pest in the game. That was the case here, with 5-11, 185-pound Friedman zeroing in on 6-6, 232-pound forward Michael McCarron. Friedman was antagonizing him between whistles, and after the second period ended stayed out on the ice for some extended time to jaw back and forth with McCarron from afar. Kris Letang stayed out on the ice a few feet away, looking like he was out there in case backup was needed.
• Nice to see ex-Penguin Mark Jankowski find a home in the NHL with Nashville and be more of a regular again after some time in the AHL after leaving Pittsburgh. In other Jankowski news, the Nailers this week signed Jankowski's younger brother, David. He's a 25-year-old center who was with Michigan Tech last season and had four goals and five assists in 28 games.
• In case you missed it Thursday afternoon, Owen Pickering has joined Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. More on him and what that means here.
• The flags outside of PPG Paints Arena were at half mast and coaches on both teams wore red and white ribbons for the six victims -- including three children -- of the Nashville Covenant School shooting this week.
Tonight, both teams are wearing red and white ribbons, the colors for The Covenant School. pic.twitter.com/E8Z98vI4x1
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) March 31, 2023
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena
1. Tristan Jarry, Penguins G
2. Jason Zucker, Penguins LW
3. Jake Guentzel, Penguins LW
THE INJURIES
• Defenseman Jan Rutta is sidelined with a lower-body injury and is week-to-week. It seems like it was from the puck to the knee he took on March 14. He played on March 16 then was sidelined after that. He has resumed skating on his own.
• Defenseman Marcus Pettersson suffered a lower-body injury on March 18 and is week-to-week. He's on long-term injured reserve and has resumed skating on his own.
• Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov suffered a lower-body injury on March 12 and is week-to-week. He's on long-term injured reserve and has resumed skating on his own.
• Forward Nick Bonino suffered a lacerated kidney on March 9 and is week-to-week. He's on long-term injured reserve and has resumed skating on his own.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen - Ryan Pohling - Mikael Granlund
Drew O'Connor - Jeff Carter - Josh Archibald
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
P.O Joseph - Jeff Petry
Mark Friedman - Chad Ruhwedel
And for John Hynes' Predators:
Egor Afanasyev - Cody Glass - Philip Tomasino
Kiefer Sherwood - Thomas Novak - Luke Evangelista
Yakov Trenin - Colton Sissons - Cole Smith
Rasmus Asplund - Mark Jankowski - Michael McCarron
Ryan McDonagh - Dante Fabbro
Tyson Barrie - Jeremy Lauzon
Kevin Gravel - Cal Foote
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will have a practice Friday at noon in Cranberry. Next game is Saturday at 3:08 p.m. against the Bruins at PPG Paints Arena.
THE MULTIMEDIA
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THE CONTENT
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