During the recent NHL All-Star Game, Tristan Jarry stopped an incredible 14 of 15 shots in 3-on-3 play to seal a victory for the Metropolitan Division. The plucky netminder authored a similarly show-stopping performance last night, making 43 saves to backstop the Penguins to a hard-earned 4-2 victory over the always nettlesome Bruins at TD Garden.
While his teammates stumbled out of the starting blocks following a week off, Jarry made a series of miraculous, game-saving stops, including a stunning glove save on Tomas Nosek from point-blank range, an incredible behind-his-back stop during a goal-mouth scramble and another amazing glove save on (memory fails me).
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Thank God for Tristan Jarry.
It was all Bruins at the start. The tone for a rocky first period was set just 1:40 in when Radim Zohorna drew a tripping minor. Twenty-one tics later David Pastrnak beat Jarry clean on a wide-open look from the left dot.
The Bs upped their lead to 2-0 at 15:34 thanks to a colossal blunder by Kris Letang. Following a hustling play by Kasperi Kapanen to keep a play alive, Tanger pinched ahead of a line change and misfired from the right circle, springing the Bruins on a counter 3-on-1. Jarry had no chance as Pastrnak struck again from the side of the cage.
The closing minutes of the period were more of the same. Had it not been for the play of No. 35, the bad guys could’ve blown the game wide open.
As I watched our boys flounder through the early stages of the second period, an article titled, “What’s Wrong with Our Penguins,” began to fulminate in my brain. Well, apparently the PenguinPoop curse works in reverse…even when I don’t actually commit words to paper…lol.
Suddenly, our guys found a little “hidden vigorish” as the ol’ Gunner, Bob Prince, used to say. Just past the four-minute mark Mike Matheson sprung Brock McGinn and Danton Heinen on a 2-on-1 off a neutral zone turnover. McGinn flipped a backhand saucer pass to Heinen approaching from the left. The ex-Bruin cut in front of the net and slipped a silky backhander past goalie Jeremy Swayman.
The tally had the effect of jump-starting your car’s dead battery on a frigid winter morn. Previously comatose, the Pens sprang to life. Following the ensuing faceoff, the ubiquitous Heinen struck again, firing a gravity-defying shot from the right circle that climbed over Swayman’s shoulder and in.
In the blink of an eye…or 28 seconds to be precise…the tenor of the game completely changed. The surging Pens proceeded to snatch a 3-2 lead at 12:53 of the period while working with a man-advantage. Bryan Rust misfired on a wide-open look from close range but followed up his miss with a short pass to Sidney Crosby below the left circle. Sid made no mistake, dropping to a knee to beat Swayman for the go-ahead marker and the 499th goal of his illustrious career.
Thanks to Jarry and the aforementioned saves, the Pens held serve through the final stanza. Long enough for Rust to split an empty net at 18:31 and lock up two big points.
Puckpourri
The Bruins held a 45-25 edge in shots on goal and a whopping 73-48 advantage in shot attempts.
It was good to see us get offense from someone other than our big guns. In addition to Heinen’s two-goal effort, McGinn, Matheson, John Marino and Evan Rodrigues picked up assists.
Evgeni Malkin missed the game due to Covid. Heinen took his place and earned the third star. Jarry garnered top-star honors, and rightfully so.
Rust (a goal and an assist) had a tough night, absorbing a stick to the chops and a big hit that sent him hobbling to the dressing room. Nice to see the hustling winger get rewarded with the empty netter.
With the victory, the Pens (28-11-8, 64 points) move into a second place tie in the Metro with the Rangers, one point behind the front-running Hurricanes and five ahead of the fourth-place Capitals.
Up next, the vastly improved Senators in Ottawa on Thursday night. We’ll likely face old friend Matt Murray, who’s rebounding nicely from a rocky start and early season demotion.
And the Worthless Piece of Dung Award Goes to…
…Brad Marchand. After Jarry stoned him from point-blank range in the closing seconds, the Bs assistant captain went berserk, sucker-punching the unsuspecting netminder from the blind side and sticking him in the mask for good measure.
Absolutely despicable. Which pretty much sums up Marchand’s on-ice character.
What goes around comes around. Hopefully someone wastes the little BLEEP one day. The game will be far better off without him.
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Rick,
I concur with all the comments on the lack of team support for Jarry. It was a disgrace.
IMO , great goalies are like great pitchers. They take everything personally and as a central focus of the whole game, they must have tremendous self confidence being on an island unto themselves.
For that reason, I love that Jarry seems to be getting into it more with opposing players… it’s a great sign and I hope he can use this event to even up the attitude more.
Great athletes manage their aggression to elevate their game.
Unfortunately for Marchand, is that it gets the better of him. I fully expect to hear about him after hockey for incidents that may land him in jail.
On the game side, I thought E-rod looked good. I think he’s got real upside going forward . The D made lots of dumb mistakes in general and the team checks like Girl Scouts.
If not for Jarry standing on his head, it looked like it should have ended up being a 5-3 loss not a 4-2 win.
I’ll take it but they better tighten up.
Checked like Girl Scouts...lol.
Again, great observations. Totally agree with your last comment. The Pens gave the Bruins a ton of open looks and it would, indeed, have been ugly if Jarry hadn't saved the day (literally) . Although he's done it time and again, we really can't expect him to save our bacon every night.
Along those lines, our team defensive structure has really sagged over the past month or so. So many open looks and odd-man breaks against. I think we miss Teddy Blueger more than anyone knows. Just a solid two-way player, and he worked really well with McGinn and ZAR.
I like Rodrigues, too. The more responsibility and ice time he's given, the more he excels. I keep wishing Sullivan would reunite him with Kapanen. They made a pretty dynamic duo earlier in the season.
Rick
Hey Lightning and Rick,
Agreed about E-Rod. The guy has shown a lot when allowed to play Center. Unfortunately, our coach would rather play him at wing and limit his skill set, in the mean time keep Carter at Center, which he does do well, rather than move Carter to RW on either Crosby's or Malkin's line where the big guy also has considerable skill and more importantly could open up so much ice for either of his top 2 Centers.
I am not sorry, that is p!55 poor asset management!
I am sorry Rick, in those rare occasions where the team is relatively healthy, I would rather see
a 3rd line of Heinen - E-Rod - Kapanen
4th Line of Boyle - Blueger - McGinn
I don't hate ZAR, but Boyle will bring far more.
In fact I would look to deal ZAR and try and get O'Connor (when Healthy) and Angello more NHL TOI in case needed in the playoffs.
The loss of Blueger has had a severe impact on our Pens, primarily the PK. Prior to Blueger's injury, the PK was cruising along at 89.1%, after the injury, 71.4%.
As for defensive structure breakdown; up thru the vaunted 18-2 tear the Pens 5 on 5 CA/60 was 53.00%, now during this slump that stat reads 50.17; opponents are getting almost 3 less shot attempts per 60 minutes. The CF% has remained roughly the same, so the teams Offense has taken a hit. This tells more of a factor that teams are starting to knuckle down defensively for the playoffs and more importantly, what I have said all along, the streak was built on the bodies of cellar dwellers and now the Pens are playing better talented and/or structured teams.
This same drop can be seen in SA/60 5 on 5 (29.84 vs 26.87) with almost no change in the SF%, HDCA/60 (10.30 vs 8.84), and GA/60 (2.19 vs the current 1.70).
Contrasting that is an increase in the team's Sv% now during this current the slump (93.67%), compared to the 92.67% before the slump. Concomitant to the increase in Sv% has been a decrease in S% (down from 8.41% to 5.75%)
The same can be said of Gv for most players on the team, their Gv/60 5 on 5 have been dropping. One of the few players whose Gv/60 that has gone thru the roof has been my favorite Penguin Pylon, Simon. Sullivan's buddy has seen his GV/60 jump from 0.57 to 3.10. When teams start getting physical he melts.
Speaking of Sullivan's Smurf poster child Simon's Minor Penalties/60 has also increased from 0.96 to 2.07. All you need to do is bump the ersatz winger and he coughs up the puck and then throws a hissy fit, takes a penalty and doubles down on his blunder, but Sullivan will sit Zohorna or some other kid for veteran Simon's mistakes.
Rick
One thing that encourages me is Hextall. He had a great couple of moves with signing McGinn and Heinen .
I didn’t think that would be a step up from McCann and Tanev but I think it has and at a lower payroll.
With Hextall being a goalie himself, maybe we can get a steal signing at that position to solidify that all critical 1-2 punch Stanley cup contenders usually have.
I like Zaharia too. He needs a tad faster trigger on the shot and I’d like to see him use his size more.
I agree that the Blueger loss is a bigger impact than people recognize.
One last thing.
The team badly needs a focus on core strength and muscle building.
Peterson should be 20 lbs heavier and Drew OConnor would benefit from serious weight training as well.
Same with McGinn .
They’d get strength , mass and testosterone. All helpful.
Rick
I know I'm preaching to the choir but no one going after Marchand - Not a good look by the Pen's and I wonder
how much that will affect Jarry? IMO it's an absolute that no one messes with your goalie. I'm a firm believer
in situations like this teams lose respect for other teams and the chance of them taking liberties with your
players increase and I think players on your team lose respect for their own teammates.
I look forward to your thoughts and feedback - GO PENS
Hey Mike,
I was absolutely livid while watching this unfold. I've only been this angry over a sporting incident three times. The other two, the Vontaze Burfict hit on Antonio Brown and Tom Wilson purposely taking out Conor Sheary's leg...both back in 2016.
Had I been on the ice, I would've tried to split Marchand's skull with my stick. Un-Christian, I know. But that's how enraged I was.
I so wish the Penguins had one guy who could fight well enough to keep other teams honest. I doubt that will ever happen as long as Mike Sullivan's coach. He truly seems to have an aversion to any one who can really fight.
Rick
Hey Mike,
I played Goal. In one particular game, when an opponent tried running me, my younger and much smaller brother, who played on the team chased the offender who was just as big as me around the rink, going thru the linesman to get to him until the message was sent, you don't mess with his Goalie. The non response from Jarry's team mates was as disgraceful as Marchand's craven attack
Hey Rick,
Perhaps the Bruins Buffoon Marchand doomed his own team when, in warm-up, the clown smacked Jarry's stick, knocking the puck away, and prevented the Pens Goalie from doing a kindness to a fan in the stands. Or perhaps the fan to whom Jarry was attempting to give a souvenir put the evil eye on the bellicose bumpkins entire team.
(Actually the man has the perfect initials - B rad M archand)
Granted, Boston does have a decent win-loss record but it is hard to believe when you consider their 5 on 5 S% is 6th worst in the league (Therefore, the 1 G on 35 5 on 5 Shots should come as no surprise) and their Sv% is 4th worst in the league. Again, I wasn't surprised to see Heinen being able to sneak in, wide open on the back door and cut across the crease like he did. However, the puck that crawled up and over swayman's shoulder had to be the hockey gods retribution for the unsportsman like behavior of BM in denying a fan a puck from a visiting Goalie.
What I find most disturbing about the game was the team's half hearted to non existent response to BMs criminal assault and attempted assault with a deadly weapon on their team mate and goalie. Regardless of what the league does as a whole, individual players, particularly ones on rival playoff bound teams took notice of and will be embolden by the tail-between-the-legs Penguins and destroy them physically, like an old worn out punching bag.
I am not particularly a Letang fan, especially after he had 4 Gv last night, including one leading to a GA, but he is the only one with guts enough to try to defend Jarry. Good for 58 but I am ashamed of the rest of our team for their non response.
Hey guys,
The more I watch video of the incident, the more I agree with you concerning our response...or lack of. Letang tried to get at Marchand, but was waylaid by a linesman and Charlie McAvoy. Jake Guentzel appeared to say something to the Bruins' scumbag just before he was ushered off the ice, but Jake isn't going to strike fear into anyone's heart.
Perhaps the most disheartening response...or lack of...was Crosby's. Marchand backed into him shortly after delivering the sucker punch and Sid just kind of melted away. Don't know if he didn't see what happened or if he didn't want to confront Marchand, who one of announcers mentioned was an off-ice acquaintance (friend?) and perhaps even training partner.
Not that you want Sid busting a knuckle on someone's head or helmet. But still...
Times have changed since "Terrible" Ted Lindsay said, "I hate everyone on the other teams."
Rick
Rick
People don't get it - your comment about Sid busting his knuckle on someone's head is the exact
reason why they need a "HAMMER" These guys are human and Hockey players and you can't always
expect them to turn the other cheek. They need to find a player who can give them respect on the
ice. What do you lose if you plug that type player in for Ashton-Reese or Simon?
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Hextall doesn't "TURN THE OTHER CHEEK".
GO PENS
Rick
When I watched it I thought the same thing about Sid and then I remembered that Marchand and McKinnon
both workout with Crosby in the off-season. But where I come from business is business and not one Penguin
stepped up and held Marchand accountable. This took the heart right out of me. I'm hoping both Burke and
Hextall had trouble sleeping Tuesday night.
Hey Mike,
My question is, how well do Burke and Hextall think the Pens would do if Marchand had seriously injured Jarry? This image of the Penguins as the leagues punching bag has to stop (6 game suspension vs maybe a 2 month or more injury to our only goalie hmm... into how many losses would that translate?). Teams know they can injure Pens stars and get away with it, their team mates will just roll over and expose their throats in submission.
The Other Rick
I couldn't agree more. The way the Penguins handled the attack on Jarry is more disheartening to me than
what Marchand actually did. If the roles were reversed everyone on Boston's team would of been targeting
the perpetrator. I'm so tired of listening to fans cry to the league "NHL" about a suspension when the real
problem is the Penguins failure to police the situation. Hextall needs to get creative and find away to address
this at the deadline.
GO PENS
Mike,
You know it, the Bruins as team would have surrounded any player who did what Marchand did and no set of linesmen would have been able to protect him from their wrath. And I, like you are sick and tire of whiners and that is how we will be/are perceived as all we do is cry about it.
The team NEEDS at least 1 Forward and 1 Defenseman capable of handling that situation and deterring future attacks.