I’m not gonna’ lie. When I discovered Penguins coach Dan Muse had named Tristan Jarry as his starter for last night’s home opener against the Islanders, I was less-than-enthused. I texted PP colleague Caleb DiNatale with the unwelcome news, adding, “I’ll be stunned if he gives up less than three goals.”
Well, I got that part right. Jarry, indeed yielded three goals to the visitors from Long Island, including a potential soul-crusher to 25-year-old Russian rookie Maxim Shabonov with 41 seconds remaining in the second period to knot the score at 3-3.
Even when the Pens retook the lead with 5:39 left in the third period on a fabulous goal by the Monster Line, I wondered if Jarry could make it stand up.
Then I watched in amazement as the much-maligned goalie turned into a veritable fortress, stopping seven shots in the final four minutes and change. Three off the stick of Mat Barzal, including one on a last-ditch, short-handed stab by the Isles’ star with three seconds left.
It wasn’t just the fact that Jarry made the saves, but how he made ‘em that impressed me. Mostly under extreme duress. Yet he tracked the puck beautifully and through heavy traffic to boot, all the while allowing precious few rebounds. Indeed, the puck stuck to him as if it were made of Velcro instead of vulcanized rubber.
It may have been his finest hour in a Penguins uniform. He was, in a word, magnificent.
How We Got There
The Pens struck first on the power play at 3:23 of the opening period. Evgeni Malkin set up Rickard Rakell to the left of the Isles’ net with a crisp, cross-crease pass. Ilya Sorokin made the initial save and blunted a second-chance try by Rakell, but couldn’t control the rebound. After Sidney Crosby took a crack at it, Geno pounced on the loose rubber and flung a backhander past the besieged Isles goalie.
However, following a delay of game penalty to Noel Acciari, the visitors seized the momentum and snagged a 2-1 on goals by Jonathan Drouin from the high slot just past the 12-minute mark and Kyle Palmieri off the rush early in the second.
Cue Harrison Brunicke. Ninety-seven seconds after Palmieri’s tally, the rookie defender strode into a table-setter feed by Filip Hållander and lasered the puck past Sorokin, glove side.
Pretty goal.
Next came a gritty goal, by none other than our captain, Sidney Crosby. After camping out in the slot on a 4-on-3, Sid braced himself by dropping to a knee while offering his stick blade as a target for Malkin. Geno executed a perfect one-cushion bank shot, and suddenly the Pens were up, 3-2.
Unfortunately, Shabanov scored off the rush following a turnover in the neutral zone in the final minute of the period to toss a bucket of ice water on the proceedings.
The third period was a heck of a lot of fun to watch, as the Metro rivals engaged in some good, old-fashioned fire-wagon hockey. Then came the Pens’ go-ahead goal. Truly a thing of beauty.
Caleb Jones initiated the play, corralling a loose puck in our right circle while steering it away from an encroaching Palmieri. Jones alertly backhanded the puck up the boards to Anthony Mantha, who nudged it ahead to Malkin.
Geno immediately spotted Justin Brazeau breaking toward the Islanders’ zone and bounced a perfect lead pass to him off the sideboards. The big guy momentarily lost control of the puck, then coolly kicked it to his stick and beat Sorokin with a silky forehand-to-backhand move.
Shades of his game-winner against the Rangers on Tuesday night. Setting the stage for Jarry’s heroics.
Puckpourri
It was an extremely entertaining game, with more momentum shifts than you could shake the proverbial (hockey) stick at. The Islanders held a decided edge in shot attempts (69-56), shots on goal (37-28) and faceoffs (58.2 percent).
FYI: these ain’t your father’s (or Lou Lamoriello’s) Islanders. Traditionally a heavy, counterpunching team, they’re more skilled and much faster, generating lots of offense off the rush.
Geno paced our attack with a goal and two helpers to earn top star honors. Sid had a goal and an assist, Rakell two apples.
Hållander dressed in place of Philip Tomasino and collected his first NHL point. After starting the game on the third line, he flip-flopped with Ville Koivunen, slotting in on right wing next to Sid. The move reunited Koivunen with Ben Kindel. The duo displayed great chemistry during the preseason.
Tommy Novak likewise picked up his first point as a Penguin. For the first time, he caught my eye. He’s got size, can skate and is obviously quite skilled. I was surprised (pleasantly) to see him deliver a stiff body check as well. (Nobody asked me, but I wonder if he might be a nice fit on Sid’s wing.)
I thought Jones had a really nice game on defense, quietly effective. The metrics back up the eye test (57.89 Corsi and a team-best 78.44 expected goals for percentage). The game-winning goal was a direct result of his heads-up play.
Jarry stopped 34 of 37 shots for a .919 save percentage. As superb as he was in the closing minutes, and I need to be clear, we wouldn’t have won the game without him, the first two goals he allowed weren’t exactly of the highlight-reel variety. He continues to be like the little girl with the curl. When he’s good, he’s very good and when he’s bad…I’ll let you fill in the rest.
I love the way the team is playing under Muse. We have so much more energy and juice. Everyone from the rookies to the vets look like they’re having fun. A night-and-day difference from the past several seasons, when stale was the watchword.
Speaking of frolicking, my goodness is Erik Karlsson having a start to the season! He’s just taking over and making it all look so fluid and effortless. Whatever restraining bolts were placed on him during the previous regime seem to have been removed. (Mike, if you’re reading this, you were spot-on. Thank goodness we didn’t trade him.)
Still not sure I get the love affair with Acciari. While I appreciate his grit and willingness to sacrifice, I question whether he can really contribute at this stage. Kind of reminds me of latter-day version of Craig Adams, right down to the team’s insistence on playing him.
Not that I’m rooting against “Cookie,” but with Bryan Rust primed to return, perhaps he’ll be the one to sit.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Mario Lemieux and wife, Nathalie, were in attendance last night. Great to see the big guy in the building and looking fit at 60!
Don’t look now, but the Pens have won seven straight under Muse.
Up next, a return match with Mike Sullivan’s Rangers on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.
Oh, loved the new gold uni’s. Intentional or not, the stripes on the sleeves are an ode to our original jerseys from way back in 1967.
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View Comments
Hey all,
it appears they've taken away Malkin's goal and credited it to Rakell, who flashed through the blue paint behind Sorokin just as Geno shot the puck. Although it's not real obvious, the puck must've deflected off RikRak or his stick.
Malkin was credited with an assist instead.
Rick
Hey all,
This is a little off-topic, but I wanted to reference an article by Jim Rixner published on Pensburgh yesterday titled, "Kyle Dubas talks about training camp decisions, young players."
In particular, Rixner shares direct quotes from Dubas regarding the logic behind his decisions to send Tristan Broz, Avery Hayes and Sergei Murashov to the Baby Pens, while explaining why he elected to keep teenagers Brunicke and Kindel, not to mention new/old prospect Filip Hallander.
Not to steal Jim's thunder...I strongly encourage you to read the article...but in the case of Broz and Hayes, Dubas mentioned a bit of a mid-camp let down, while Kindel and Hallander continued to come on.
Anyway, a most worthwhile read.
Rick
Rick,
Dubas is a Propaganda Minister. In the article you mention KD tries justifying keeping Jarry and Silovs because of how well they played in the preseason. Go back and look Rick, Jarry had the worst preseason of all Penguin Goalies, posting an abysmal 0.889 Sv% while getting pulled from the net in the final preseason game. (Maybe Muse was planning on switching Goalies anyway but that isn't the logical course - to switch Goalies. Normally the starter would be expected to play the entire game.
Silovs had the second worst preseason, with a Sv% of 0.904.
Blomqvist and Murashov, and even Fleury out played Jarry and Silovs. The saving grace for those two Dubas favorites is the low number of shots they faced with the team posting three games keeping opponents under 25 SOG.
Furthermore, Dubas' track record on Goalies demonstrates a distinct lack of knowledge of what constitutes good Goaltending.
As for Broz and Avery, Dubas has the authority to make any call he wants, however, the authority entrusted to him by the FSG group (who have shown no real clue about hockey) does not make any of his statements fact. He doesn't cite examples and failure to cite examples that can be scrutinized is dubious at best. Therefore, considering Dubas' statement regarding Jarry and Silovs, his assertion about "a dip in play" without citing specific examples is not worth air it took to propagate another potential falsehood.
As for Kindle and Brunicke,
Kindle was directly responsible for the first Goal Against for a serious lapse in defense. First, he failed to slow down a for checker that just blew past his weak attempt at a pick (no bog surprise there, since Kindle is just a kid playing against men). Next, even though everyone in the arena, including the Islanders could see that Wotherspoon was reversing the play back up the boards that it just had come down, Kindle cut to the inside of the rink and was deep inside the FO circle rather than along the boards to retrieve the puck, allowing NYI to maintain possession uncontested. Third, when the play was moved back to Center point, to the eventual Goal scorer, Kindle, having moved in between the circles was in a perfect position to at lest put stick on stick, if not body on body. So NYI was up 1-0 because Jarry was once again not in the best position to make a save.
Furthermore, even though as you note, Kindle does have the Moxie to go to the dirty areas, he is still a child and gets manhandled. Opponents just brush him aside like the charging Islander that blew past him on that 1st GA. Adding insult to injury, he has demonstrated a laziness and weakness on the puck, opponents have on more than one occasion, picked his pocket with hard back pressure.
I get giving Kindle a roster spot over Novak, Acciari, or Tomasino, in case a top 6 role opens up. What is problematic is playing him over Broz or Hayes.
Most importantly, Dubas is risking the physical health of Kindle by letting him get crushed by far more physically mature men tossing this boy around.
In Brunicke's case, that is a little different. he isn't as young as Kindle and the team really doesn't have many options available. However, Brunicke isn't the savior that many are hailing him. Like Kindle he has had his pocket picked in multiple occasions, And like Kindle he was directly responsible for one of the 3 GA Jarry ceded yesterday. Look back at the Goal, Brunicke jumped to the head of the back to counter attack as the Penguins tried to breakout. This Defenseman was ahead of every other Penguin streaking towards the attacking zone. When the play dissolved, Brunicke had to get on his Horse and get back, Because Brunicke was skating so hard to get back into the play, he had his back to the Isle's attackers and had no idea where the Isles were. Had he played his position, Defenesman, he would have been calmly skating backwards with the play in front of him. He would have been in a far better position to prevent a pass through the slot, or at least get stick on stick.
As for Novak, even though it has only been 2 games, opponents have been scoring goals at a 5.41/60 minutes 5-on-5 while he has been on the ice, well above his career average - which was already high). He can make neat little offensive plays all he wants when defensively, he makes even more gaffe's.
Back to the plus side of things, this team could easily be 0 - 2 if not for the herculean effort of Malkin and Brazeau. In Brazeau's case, I thought he was horrible in the preseason but since the real games have begun, he has been there, answering the bell. He has only shown one move (forehand to backhand but it has earned him 3 Goals.
Hey Other Rick,
I won't disagree that it's a bit of a stretch for Dubas to say Jarry and Silovs played well in preseason (especially the former), although both have done the job thus far in the regular season.
I'm as intrigued as anyone by Murashov's potential. However, I don't think it's a bad idea for him to get some experience with the Baby Pens before we throw him into the breach.
I'm reminded of how things went with Blomqvist last year, and that was with a full season in the AHL under his belt. While it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison...the Pens' team defense was catastrophically bad at the start of last season...there certainly were some growing pains with Blomqvist. For that matter, it was the same with Marc-Andre Fleury all those years ago.
I just don't think it's the worst thing for our goalies to get seasoning in the minors. Eventually, perhaps even sooner than we think, the door will open for them.
The same applies to Tristan Broz and Avery Hayes.
Rick
Again Rick,
Particularly Kindle and to a lesser extent Brunicke are far, far, far more vulnerable and less NHL ready, but Dubas and many, many fans and media types are pushing for these literal kids to be sacrificed but defend the hypocrisy of denying Blomqvist Murashov, Broz, and Hayes their due. In Kindles case he could really get seriously injured because he still has a teens body. Blomqvist, Murashov, Broz, and Hayes are seriously adult by comparison.
This hypocrisy is why my trust in Dubas has eroded even further.