I don't care who's to blame or how many might be to blame. I do care that, spanning more than half an NHL season, this is Tristan Jarry's breakdown of being beaten early through 21 starts:
• First shot he faces: 6 times • Second shot he faces: 4 times • Third shot he faces: 2 times • Fourth shot he faces: 3 times
That's 15 times within the first four shots of a given game. For real. Before the final echoes of Jeff Jimerson's Anthem.
Tick, tick, tick ...
The Penguins can sputter or they can soar like the '66 Canadiens for the first couple periods, and they'll still spit one up late. Or two. Or three. Or in overtime. Or there won't be a single save in the shootout.
Or, as with this latest stomach-turner tonight at PPG Paints Arena, they'll cough up two within a 50-second span of the third period of what'd wind up a lousiest-of-them-all 4-2 loss to a Seattle lineup that'd lagged so far behind they might as well have not paid their expansion fee:
BIG RIG! 🚛 🚨
The #SeaKraken FINALLY get something going, and Oleksiak cruises down Broadway and scores off the bench.
Love how surprised John Forslund sounds… “That’s HOCKEY, baby!” 😂
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) January 15, 2025
I can't with this anymore. I just can't.
I don't want to hear that the first goal's not Jarry's fault. Sure, it's a shorty, and it's a two-on-one, but it's an unscreened wrister from the right dot that beats him through the equipment. Every goaltender in existence wants that back.
I don't want to hear that the second goal's not Jarry's fault. Sure, Evgeni Malkin and Michael Bunting become statues as Jamie Oleksiak splits them, but that short-side flick's way too easy.
I don't even want to hear that the third goal's not Jarry's fault, even though it absolutely isn't.
Joey Daccord, Seattle's league-average goaltender, was "excellent," per his coach, Dan Bylsma, and "really picked us up" in stopping 31 of 33 shots, with Bylsma underscoring that Rickard Rakell breakaway. And that's skimming the surface: The Penguins outshot the Kraken, 16-2 in the first, not allowing a puck to touch Jarry the rest of that period after Stephenson's softy. They'd outshoot the Kraken, 33-18, for the evening, and out-attempt them, 70-49.
And if that felt familiar, that might be because two days earlier against a much tougher Tampa Bay lineup here, the Penguins smoked the Lightning in shots, 33-19, and attempts, 76-47, only to somehow lose, 5-2.
That's back-to-back opponents being given next-to-no zone time and still pumping a half-dozen pucks behind Jarry.
Three goals on 17 shots in this one.
Three goals on 17 shots in that one.
Season save percentage: .886, which ranks 44th among the NHL's 48 qualified goaltenders and second-worst among starters, ahead of only the Sharks' Alexandar Georgiev.
Jarry was asked what went wrong in this one, meaning the third period.
“I think we just kind of stopped playing in their end," he'd reply. "They kind of took it to us a little bit. We got stuck on our heels, and they were able to get around us and get to pucks quicker.”
Nothing about his role. Not in that answer. Not in any other.
But he keeps playing. And starting. And no change appears imminent at the position in general, even though the backup, Alex Nedeljković, hasn't been any better.
Why?
Well, here it is again: It couldn't be clearer that Kyle Dubas has prioritized getting rid of Jarry's cap-catastrophic contract of five years and $26.75 million -- which Dubas signed -- that runs all the way through the 2027-28 season, and he's prioritized it to such an extreme that it means more than winning.
More than doing right by Sidney Crosby, who's still putting up a point a game, who's still putting up with viciousness like this ...
Sidney Crosby went to the Penguins dressing room immediately after getting cross-checked by Adam Larsson. pic.twitter.com/YEeILceaYA
... and who's still saying all the right stuff, such as when I asked afterward if the Penguins can at least take some confidence from how they've skated these past two games:
"Yeah, I think, if anything, we'll realize that, if we play the right way, we'll get rewarded," he'd reply. "When we play our game, when we get opportunities, when we generate a lot, like we did in these last couple especially, knowing that's important. But at the same time, we've got to close out games."
He's in. He's still in.
Dubas, I can only presume, is out. He's got two young goaltenders performing extremely well with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, Joel Blomqvist and Filip Larsson, and he's got one who might be more talented than any of them, Sergei Murashov, getting squeezed all the way down with Wheeling of the ECHL.
And he's sticking with what's here?
When all it'd take is running Jarry through waivers -- and pray for a claim, I might add -- before sending him down and bringing up Blomqvist or Larsson. No fuss, no muss.
But then, that'd devalue any potential trade, it'd put Dubas in a spot where he'd have to pony up an obscene percentage of the Jarry contract to make it go poof, and that'd all undoubtedly be frowned upon by the Fenway Sports Group bosses, right?
As for Mike Sullivan, this is the goaltending he's been given and, as he reminded on a recent trip regarding an unrelated issue, it's Dubas' roster. So Sullivan's either got Jarry's .886 or Nedeljkovic's .886, or he's got to sit there in the press conference and get asked by me afterward what he thinks needs to change.
“What needs to change is a commitment to play defense. That's what I think," he pretty much steamed back. "We weren’t willing to play defense. We didn’t spend a lot of time in our end tonight, but the time that we did, we weren’t committed to play the right way. They scored two goals in the third period on non-event scenarios. It wasn’t like we were under siege. It wasn’t like they were coming at us in waves. It was none of the above. It was two plays, or two scenarios that were, in my mind, non-events. But we didn’t pay attention to detail, we didn’t stop, we didn’t protect the good ice, we didn’t get stops in the corners, win puck battles, block shots ... it boils down to details. We weren’t willing to do it tonight.”
He's right, of course. In the moment. Which is how coaches roll. Everything's in the moment, in the day, in the specific scenario.
That's not this.
This weekend, the Penguins embark on a seven-game, two-week, cross-continent trip that'll likely expose whether or not they'll still make something of this psycho-season:
NHL
Imagine if the GM moved that atop his list.
Tick, tick, tick ...
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THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
9:49 am - 01.15.2025UptownDK: Why just wait for the bad thing to happen? Make real change
Tick, tick, tick ...
The other team's going to score within the first few minutes following faceoff:
I don't care who's to blame or how many might be to blame. I do care that, spanning more than half an NHL season, this is Tristan Jarry's breakdown of being beaten early through 21 starts:
• First shot he faces: 6 times
• Second shot he faces: 4 times
• Third shot he faces: 2 times
• Fourth shot he faces: 3 times
That's 15 times within the first four shots of a given game. For real. Before the final echoes of Jeff Jimerson's Anthem.
Tick, tick, tick ...
The Penguins can sputter or they can soar like the '66 Canadiens for the first couple periods, and they'll still spit one up late. Or two. Or three. Or in overtime. Or there won't be a single save in the shootout.
Or, as with this latest stomach-turner tonight at PPG Paints Arena, they'll cough up two within a 50-second span of the third period of what'd wind up a lousiest-of-them-all 4-2 loss to a Seattle lineup that'd lagged so far behind they might as well have not paid their expansion fee:
I can't with this anymore. I just can't.
I don't want to hear that the first goal's not Jarry's fault. Sure, it's a shorty, and it's a two-on-one, but it's an unscreened wrister from the right dot that beats him through the equipment. Every goaltender in existence wants that back.
I don't want to hear that the second goal's not Jarry's fault. Sure, Evgeni Malkin and Michael Bunting become statues as Jamie Oleksiak splits them, but that short-side flick's way too easy.
I don't even want to hear that the third goal's not Jarry's fault, even though it absolutely isn't.
Why?
Because of this:
Crazy, huh?
Joey Daccord, Seattle's league-average goaltender, was "excellent," per his coach, Dan Bylsma, and "really picked us up" in stopping 31 of 33 shots, with Bylsma underscoring that Rickard Rakell breakaway. And that's skimming the surface: The Penguins outshot the Kraken, 16-2 in the first, not allowing a puck to touch Jarry the rest of that period after Stephenson's softy. They'd outshoot the Kraken, 33-18, for the evening, and out-attempt them, 70-49.
And if that felt familiar, that might be because two days earlier against a much tougher Tampa Bay lineup here, the Penguins smoked the Lightning in shots, 33-19, and attempts, 76-47, only to somehow lose, 5-2.
That's back-to-back opponents being given next-to-no zone time and still pumping a half-dozen pucks behind Jarry.
Three goals on 17 shots in this one.
Three goals on 17 shots in that one.
Season save percentage: .886, which ranks 44th among the NHL's 48 qualified goaltenders and second-worst among starters, ahead of only the Sharks' Alexandar Georgiev.
Jarry was asked what went wrong in this one, meaning the third period.
“I think we just kind of stopped playing in their end," he'd reply. "They kind of took it to us a little bit. We got stuck on our heels, and they were able to get around us and get to pucks quicker.”
Nothing about his role. Not in that answer. Not in any other.
But he keeps playing. And starting. And no change appears imminent at the position in general, even though the backup, Alex Nedeljković, hasn't been any better.
Why?
Well, here it is again: It couldn't be clearer that Kyle Dubas has prioritized getting rid of Jarry's cap-catastrophic contract of five years and $26.75 million -- which Dubas signed -- that runs all the way through the 2027-28 season, and he's prioritized it to such an extreme that it means more than winning.
More than doing right by Sidney Crosby, who's still putting up a point a game, who's still putting up with viciousness like this ...
... and who's still saying all the right stuff, such as when I asked afterward if the Penguins can at least take some confidence from how they've skated these past two games:
"Yeah, I think, if anything, we'll realize that, if we play the right way, we'll get rewarded," he'd reply. "When we play our game, when we get opportunities, when we generate a lot, like we did in these last couple especially, knowing that's important. But at the same time, we've got to close out games."
He's in. He's still in.
Dubas, I can only presume, is out. He's got two young goaltenders performing extremely well with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, Joel Blomqvist and Filip Larsson, and he's got one who might be more talented than any of them, Sergei Murashov, getting squeezed all the way down with Wheeling of the ECHL.
And he's sticking with what's here?
When all it'd take is running Jarry through waivers -- and pray for a claim, I might add -- before sending him down and bringing up Blomqvist or Larsson. No fuss, no muss.
But then, that'd devalue any potential trade, it'd put Dubas in a spot where he'd have to pony up an obscene percentage of the Jarry contract to make it go poof, and that'd all undoubtedly be frowned upon by the Fenway Sports Group bosses, right?
As for Mike Sullivan, this is the goaltending he's been given and, as he reminded on a recent trip regarding an unrelated issue, it's Dubas' roster. So Sullivan's either got Jarry's .886 or Nedeljkovic's .886, or he's got to sit there in the press conference and get asked by me afterward what he thinks needs to change.
“What needs to change is a commitment to play defense. That's what I think," he pretty much steamed back. "We weren’t willing to play defense. We didn’t spend a lot of time in our end tonight, but the time that we did, we weren’t committed to play the right way. They scored two goals in the third period on non-event scenarios. It wasn’t like we were under siege. It wasn’t like they were coming at us in waves. It was none of the above. It was two plays, or two scenarios that were, in my mind, non-events. But we didn’t pay attention to detail, we didn’t stop, we didn’t protect the good ice, we didn’t get stops in the corners, win puck battles, block shots ... it boils down to details. We weren’t willing to do it tonight.”
He's right, of course. In the moment. Which is how coaches roll. Everything's in the moment, in the day, in the specific scenario.
That's not this.
This weekend, the Penguins embark on a seven-game, two-week, cross-continent trip that'll likely expose whether or not they'll still make something of this psycho-season:
NHL
Imagine if the GM moved that atop his list.
Tick, tick, tick ...
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
We’d love to have you!