Kraken Dine on Penguins (with Jarry for Dessert)

In a virtual replay of their loss to the Lightning on Sunday, our Penguins threw everything but the proverbial kitchen sink at the visiting Kraken last night at PPG Paints Arena, only to come out on the short end of a 4-2 score. All that was missing was a second empty-netter by Dan Bylsma’s crew.

For the second straight game, the locals climbed all over a visiting foe early, piling up an obscene 16-2 first-period edge in shots on goal.

Unfortunately, all we had to show for near total domination was a 1-1 deadlock. Due in no small part to Evgeni Malkin’s wonky wrist and Tristan Jarry, who allowed an imminently stoppable shorthanded shot by Chandler Stephenson from the top of the right circle to trickle through his pads.

On the plus side, in his second game back from IR, Philip Tomasino poked home a loose puck in the blue paint with a little help from Drew O’Connor to knot the score mid-period.

The Pens grabbed the lead at 4:42 of the second period on a gorgeous diagonal pass from Erik Karlsson to Bryan Rust, parked all alone in Ovi-land (left circle). Rusty made like the Great Eight and ripped the biscuit past a diving Joey Daccord for his 17^th goal of the season.

We entered the third period with a 28-10 edge shots on goal and a 2-1 lead. In other words, the Kraken had us right where they wanted us.

In a play that almost defied belief, ex-Pen Jamie Oleksiak hopped onto the ice on a line change to join a cycle in progress. Gathering a head of steam as he entered our zone, the Big Rig took a short pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand, split the uprights (a flatfooted Michael Bunting and Malkin) cruised past Marcus Pettersson, who took himself out of the play by dropping to a knee, and calmly snapped the puck past Jarry short side.

It’s hard to imagine our goalie not being ready for that shot. He had to see Oleksiak coming from a mile away. After all, the hulking defender ain’t the fastest skater. But I digress.

Given Jarry’s penchant for yielding soul-crushing goals at crunch time, you pretty much knew what was coming next. Sure enough, on the very next shift Shane Wright retrieved a loose puck from the side boards and drove straight to the net with an impressive power move. After eluding a tumbling P-O Joseph (picture the Leaning Tower of Pisa pitching over), the former fourth-overall pick slipped a beautiful feed to unfettered Eeli Tolvanen at the far post.

Bang bang. The puck was in our net. To be fair, Jarry didn’t have a chance.

Suddenly down 3-2 and likely massively discouraged, the Pens didn’t mount much of anything in the way of pushback in the closing minutes.

And so it goes for our fading, fumbling Penguies.

Puckpourri

The Pens garnered only three of a possible 10 points on what proved to be a disastrous home stand. With a 1-4-3 record in our past eight (3-6-3 in our last dozen), we’re trending downward with a bullet.

While I feel for Jarry—I’m sure nobody feels worse about the past two losses than he—something’s gotta give. The Pens can’t keep giving away points and games if they have any hope of making the playoffs. And Mike Sullivan can’t keep running the embattled netminder, who’s likely lost his confidence, out there no matter what the reasons.

At this stage of his career, Jarry is who he is. A 29-year-old goalie who can’t seem to make the big save when you need it the most and whose skills appear to be eroding.

It’s time for a change. Deal Jarry if you can, or send him to the Baby Pens until Kyle Dubas finds a more permanent solution for this mess and hand the reigns to Joel Blomqvist.

Next, the Pens (18-20-8) shuffle off the Buffalo to take on the Sabres Friday night. The start of a daunting 7-game, 2-week road trip that lasts through the end of January.

We’re 6-10-5 on the road this season.

A final thought on l’affaire Jarry. Perhaps Dubas dials up old friend Jimmy Rutherford in Vancouver and suggests a Jarry-for-Thatcher Demko swap. Demko’s struggling as much as Jarry and carries a similar cap hit, but with less term.

Or do something really wild and see if the Canadiens will part with power forward Josh Anderson, long in disfavor, for Jarry. Their respective cap hits and terms are roughly the same. And Anderson isn’t a stiff. On the contrary, he’s huge (6’3” 226), fast, can scrap with the best of ‘em and score, if a little too infrequently to justify his contract.

I can picture Sullivan making a bitter beer face at that one.

Is there a rule that says every former Pen has to score against his old team?