BOSTON -- Danton Heinen scored twice in 28 seconds.
Sidney Crosby scored his 499th and came within a butt-end and a bar of his 500th.
And it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest how many goals the Penguins put up, nor how pretty they were, nor the frequency with which they came within a single minute or over the course of a spectacular career, compared to all that Tristan Jarry did to prevent them in beating the Bruins, 4-2, on this Tuesday night at TD Garden.
I'm out of adjectives. All out.
Maybe this can suffice:
Yeah?
Well, imagine what Tomas Nosek's thinking after that.
I can't. I'm all out.
I informed Mike Sullivan of this afterward, to which he replied, "I thought Tristan was terrific. He made some big saves all night long. I thought he was locked in all night. And that's what he's done consistently for us this season. He's a terrific goalie when he's playing the game, and he's seeing the puck and he's locked in the way he is. In my mind, he's one of the better goaltenders in the league."
Yeah, sorry, but two usages of "terrific" and a "one of the better" isn't cutting it for me, either. Certainly not in the moment.
I'll rear back for a desperation heave here: This is one of the best stretches of goaltending I've witnessed for this franchise. As in ever. And listen, anyone who'd care to climb up on my lap, I could carry this conversation all the way back to Dunc Wilson and Denis Herron, so that's a whole lot of ever.
On this night, Jarry made 43 saves, second-most in his NHL career behind only his 45 in a 3-2 loss in Tampa, Fla, on Oct. 23, 2019. And of those 43, probably half wouldn't grade much lower than the one on Nosek. He was peppered from all points of the Pittsburgh zone, but it was plain that Boston's preference was point-blank range. The Bruins crossed the blue line without so much as a pause, pushed the play right to the net, as is their wont, and gripped and ripped. Then came crashing for seconds.
But even in the face of a miserable first period right out of the All-Star break, one underscored by David Pastrnak scoring both goals, and the Bruins running up a 17-10 edge in shots, Jarry kept coming for more, as well.
"I think we knew they were gonna throw a lot at the net, especially from the outside," Danton Heinen recalled, citing Boston's long-standing approach that ... really wasn't the case here. "I'm not going to lie: I don't think we did our best job at limiting those. But Jarrs ... it's awesome to have him back there. He kept us in it, for sure."
Then just kept on doing it, right through a bizarre finish in which Brad Marchand punched, then sticked him in the face.
Same goes for afterward, when I asked him, for some reason, to assess how he'd just fared.
"Good," he replied. "I thought I was seeing the puck well, and I think just being able to go the All-Star Game, get a couple extra reps, it helped in a way to maybe not be off the ice for so long."
And the save on Nosek?
"I think Sid said the puck went off his foot when a guy shot it, and it just kind of went straight to the guy, and I was able just to pick it up last second and, luckily, it went in my glove."
Luckily. Just went in there.
I won't take this too much farther. Promise.
But I'll point out here that Jarry's now tied for the NHL lead in goaltending games played (38), tied for second in wins (24), fourth in save percentage (.925), and fourth in goals-against average (2.21), all of which collectively very much put him in Vezina Trophy contention.
I'll then point out that no Pittsburgh goaltender's ever won the Vezina, and that only two (Tom Barrasso in 1993 and 1998, Michel Dion in 1982) even became finalists.
And I'll turn the page by pointing out that this looked, sounded and felt like a Stanley Cup playoff game, from start to finish. Just in case anyone's still fretting over that.
GETTY
Jake Guentzel looks at the Bruins' Brad Marchand after his match penalty in the third period.
• I wrote a full, separate column on the Marchand incident.
• Never lose sight of the standings. That's 28-11-8 overall, a point out of first in the Metro, end of the four-game losing streak and, going way back, just the franchise's second win in this city in the past 13 games.
• Also never lose sight of how the team actually plays. Excellent as Jarry was, he had to be, with the Penguins being blown out in possession, 45-25 in shots and 73-48 in shot attempts.
Sullivan didn't cherrypick his words when I asked if this was the type of showing he'd hoped to see out of the All-Star break.
"No, I don't think it was," he replied. "I thought the game was sloppy in so many areas. It certainly wasn't our best, by any stretch. And it's funny how, you know, I thought the game before the break we played a terrific hockey game and we came out on the wrong end of the score."
Referring to the 4-3 loss to the Capitals back home a week earlier.
"What I do think is that, when you play the right way, consistently, more often than not, you're going to get the result you're looking for," he continued. "And so, I give the players high marks because I thought we dug in as the game went on. It wasn't the prettiest game, but we've got a resilient group, we find ways to score goals, and I think we're just a scrappy group. And I think that starts with our leadership, that stick-to-it-ive-ness."
• Brian Dumoulin's a more vocal part of that leadership group than most might realize, and this was his highlight on a night filled with defensive excellence on his part:
"Yeah, I mean, that was a crazy bounce," Dumoulin said of the carom off the stanchion that handed that chance to Erik Haula. "It seems like, even in the morning skate, the stanchions were pretty lively. They're pretty crazy here. I knew the guy was driving the middle, so I just tried to get a stick and just disrupt it as best I could."
• At the morning skate, I'd asked Heinen about the importance of the Penguins getting all four lines contributing again, such as -- ahem -- a certain someone who'd gone 10 games without a goal.
His verbal response: "Oh, 100%. I think that's huge. The big guns are firing, and you love to see that. But you don't always want to rely on them. You want to have a good supporting cast that helps the offense. And yeah, I put pressure on myself to produce, so I've just got to stick with it and try to get back on track.“
His more relevant response hours later:
"That was fun," he'd reply after the game when I jokingly brought up the same subject. "Yeah, hockey's a funny game, you know? Doesn't go in sometimes, and then two go in on one shift."
Fastest two goals by the same player for the Penguins since Marty Straka scored seven seconds apart Feb. 11, 2000, in a 2-2 tie with the Oilers at the Civic Arena.
Heinen's tied the score, 2-2, inside the fifth minute of the second period.
• Crosby broke that tie at 12:53 of the second, whipping home his 499th off an equally fine Bryan Rust feed from behind the Boston net ...
... and he nearly had the 500th in the third on a two-on-one rush, but his ticketed wrister nicked the butt-end of Jeremy Swayman's stick, then clanged off the left pipe.
He might now get it Thursday night in Ottawa, the one place other than Philadelphia where he's consistently been booed ... except that no fans will be allowed to attend.
That's a yikes in either direction, I guess.
• Speaking of yikes, there was this collision in the third between Sid and Patrice Bergeron ...
... that ended Bergeron's evening.
The Bruins engaged in some chirping and chopping with Sid after that in clear retaliation, but that was silliness. The whole hockey world knows these two are friends, former linemates in the Olympics and still summer training partners. And that neither of them is remotely that type of player. Besides, the collision was only at the skate blades.
Cassidy said he hadn't yet received an update on Bergeron's status and described it only as "an upper-body injury."
• Evan Rodrigues is now at 13 games without a goal, though he did look more fluid at center ice. He twice took far too long to pull the trigger on a power play, and another time came buzzing down the right wing with a chance to shoot on a shaky Swayman, only to senselessly dish off.
Can't wish one's way out of a slump.
• On that subject, Zach Aston-Reese skated in his 200th NHL game and, no, it only feels like it's been that long since he's scored. This was his 22nd in a row without a goal, his only goal all season having come Nov. 24 against the Canucks.
He continues to excel defensively, as his advanced analytics compellingly illustrate, but it sure doesn't sound as if he's seeking comfort within that. Or that he even knows what exactly that means.
“I know they work in my favor offensively," he responded with a smile when I brought this up, "but I don't really understand what they mean, to be honest.”
Of the slump, he said, “It's something I've been reflecting on, just personally, that I kind of miss out on some offensive opportunities because I think too defensively. It's something I've just got to work on without trying to give up defensively. I think I'm almost to the point where defense kind of comes a bit naturally. But shifting gears a little bit, I think I need to shoot the puck more, kind of get back to that scoring area, plant myself around the net."
• Aston-Reese did get a nice nod from Kris Letang in the postgame helmet ceremony, though it ultimately didn't go to him or even Jarry:
Let's keep it goin'. pic.twitter.com/NyfFCQvAQl
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 9, 2022
I'll bet the next player to 500 goals gets the next one.
• Thanks for reading, as always!
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at TD Garden:
1. Tristan Jarry, Penguins
2. David Pastrnak, Bruins
3. Danton Heinen, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Evgeni Malkin, center, is on the NHL's COVID list and will miss at least the Thursday game in Ottawa.
• Teddy Blueger, center, has been on IR since undergoing surgery to repair a fractured jaw Jan. 24. He's expected to miss 6-8 weeks. He's accompanied the team on this trip to skate and keep himself in shape.
• Drew O'Connor, left winger, has been on LTIR since Jan. 15 with an upper-body injury. He resumed practicing here Monday as a limited participant.
• Jason Zucker, left winger, has been on IR since undergoing surgery to repair a core muscle Jan. 25. He's week-to-week.
• Louis Domingue, goaltender, has been on IR since he was struck by a puck in the right foot at a morning skate Jan. 20. He's week-to-week.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McGinn-Carter-Kapanen
Zohorna-Rodrigues-Heinen
Aston-Reese-Boyle-Simon
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
And for Cassidy's Bruins:
Marchand-Bergeron–Smith
Hall-Haula-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Coyle-Steen
Foligno-Nosek-Lazar
Grzelcyk-McAvoy
Reilly-Carlo
Forbort-Clifton
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins had been set to take off for Ottawa on an overnight charter and practice there Wednesday, but a travel issue forced them to spend another night here. So, they'll be right back at this rink for practice today at noon, and I will, too, to cover it.
The next game is Thursday, 7:08 p.m. against the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre and, no, for anyone wondering, that's nowhere near the ongoing trucker protest in the heart of the country's capital. The Kanata neighborhood is a half-hour drive to the west. Dave Molinari will have that game.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.