Penguins Update: What about Mike Buckley?

I was working the front desk at Wright’s Gym the other night when friend and fellow hockey aficionado Ray Pietrangeli approached and struck up a conversation about our favorite team. We compared notes on the Penguins’ offseason thus far (emphasis on the “off”) and shared our disappointment with GM Ron Hextall’s moves. We readily agreed the team was neither better nor tougher.

Ray then shifted gears and made a profound observation. In the process providing the impetus for this post.

“What about the goaltending coach?” he asked. “Matt Murray won two Stanley Cups and looked like a stud. Then he started playing deep in his net and his glove hand went bad and his game went to hell. Tristan Jarry looked really good at first. Then he started playing deep in his net and his glove hand went bad…”

It got me to thinking about Pens goaltending coach Mike Buckley. With all the dissatisfaction surrounding Jarry and, to a lesser extent, tandem mate Casey DeSmith, Buckley seems to have somehow slipped beneath the radar undetected.

I confess to knowing next to nothing about Buckley, other than the fact that he replaced Mike Bales as our goaltending coach following our back-to-back Cups. So I decided to do a little digging.

Prior to replacing Bales in 2017, the 44-year-old Massachusetts native served as the Pens’ goaltending development coach for four years, a role in which he apparently excelled. Under his tutelage, Murray enjoyed spectacular success at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Indeed, Murray’s mind-blowing 2014-15 campaign with the Baby Pens was a season for the ages. The then 20-year-old wunderkind registered an astounding 1.58 goals against average and .941 save percentage to go with 12 shutouts…in just 40 games!

DeSmith likewise flourished, posting a microscopic 2.01 goals against average with the Baby Pens in 2016-17.

By all accounts, Buckley earned his promotion. So what’s changed?

Having never played the game, I can’t tell you what he’s preaching. Only that a couple of promising young goalies appear to have withered on the vine under his watch. Is Buckley solely to blame? Or is it a shared responsibility?

It goes without saying goalies are a different breed. You have to be to willingly allow yourself to be pelted with brick-hard discs of flying vulcanized rubber. Perhaps more than any other position in hockey, goalies are subject to ups and downs and crises of confidence. After all, when you make a mistake, everyone knows about it.

Even our beloved expatriate, Marc-Andre Fleury, isn’t immune. Given “Flower’s” dazzling second career in Vegas, black-and-gold fans aren’t likely to remember. But once upon a time he allowed goals on the opening shot in something like six-straight games. Then there was the poke-check fiasco, when it seemed every time he attempted one the puck wound up in our net.

He endured two miserable postseasons mid-career and actually was benched during the 2013 playoffs in favor of journeyman Tomas Vokoun. More recently, his Jarry-esque puckhandling gaffe in Game 3 of the conference finals opened the door for a Montreal comeback and likely greased the skids for his inglorious departure from Vegas.

Sorry. Got caught up in a ramble. But the point I’m trying to make is this. Goalies typically go through hot streaks and cold snaps.

In the wake of his disastrous showing in the recent playoffs, everyone’s down on Jarry. And there’s no doubt he melted down on a big stage. Nor was this an isolated incident. When Jarry was good, he was very good. At times, downright excellent. But when he was bad, like in the playoffs and the season-opening losses to Philadelphia?

Let’s just say it was ugly and leave it at that.

Yet the kid has some ability. He didn’t earn a berth in the 2020 NHL All-Star Game by accident. He was arguably the best goalie in the league over a two-month stretch. As a 19-year-old, Jarry backstopped the Edmonton Oil Kings to a Memorial Cup…the junior hockey equivalent of the Stanley Cup. So he’s delivered in pressure situations in the past. Can he do it again?

More to the point, what if the Pens can’t land the apparent object of their affection, rumored to be Anaheim netminder and Pittsburgh native John Gibson? Is Jarry fixable?

Is Buckley the man to do the fixing?