Unsurprisingly, the absence of Tristan Jarry between the pipes has been a challenge for the Penguins since he went down with a lower-body injury in the Winter Classic in Boston on Jan. 2. In the following seven games, Penguins goalies allowed fewer than four goals only three times.
Winners of three games in their last 12, the Penguins got a major boost in welcoming Jarry back to the crease for the second leg of a home-and-home with the Senators here at PPG Paints Arena Friday night.
Maybe a little too happy to have Jarry back, the Penguins surrendered 45 shots on goal from the Senators. Jarry was up to the task for all but one of them as the home team emerged victorious, 4-1.
"I thought I was seeing the puck well," Jarry said of making the most saves in a game all season. "I guess it helps to get that many shots early and just get into the feel of the game and just to get pucks on you."
The Senators attempted 18 shots in the first period -- fewer than both the second and third period -- but as Mike Sullivan would point out, a good chunk of them came in flurries. Those swings of heightened pressure undoubtedly helped Jarry lock in early.
The specifics of Jarry's injury were never disclosed, but his movement and body language at the time of injury raised concern that it might the kind of injury that lingers. I'm sure it wasn't the best he's ever felt, but there were no signs Friday -- I'm talking zero -- that it's going to be any sort of a nuisance moving forward.
"There was no rust in his game at all," Jason Zucker said of Jarry. "I thought he played great. He was playing the puck really well. I thought he did a really nice job helping our D out, moving pucks. He played really, really well, so that was a big part of the game for us.
Or as Jake Guentzel put it, Jarry was "Just unbelievable."
What really stood out to me about Jarry -- aside from how well he seemed to be moving -- was his outstanding rebound control. Whether it was quality looks from in tight, or those pesky shots from distance that tend to break down coverage around the net, he steered nearly every puck he couldn't corral out of danger:
After allowing four goals while short-handed Wednesday against the Senators, the Penguins' penalty-kill was a perfect 3-for-3 Friday. Don't overthink this one too hard. It was the masked man doing the heavy lifting for that unit. The Senators generated 10 scoring chances and 2.16 expected goals on the power play, yet Jarry had an answer for all of it.
"He’s such a good goalie. He’s got such a calm demeanor in there," Sullivan said. "He makes some difficult saves sometimes look routine, and that’s when he’s at his best. I thought he was in great control. The puck hits him, his rebound control was great, he was tracking the puck through traffic. His handles when he gets the pucks on rims, I think he helps our defensemen out a lot, just helping us get out of our end.
"He just has a calm demeanor back there. I think it’s contagious, I think it rubs off on the group in front of him."
Don't mistake that last part for Sullivan thinking the Penguins were anything to write home about defensively, just that the team is confident in Jarry's ability to take care of business, just as he did.
A high shot total can absolutely be misleading in some cases, but in this case it tracks. Just take a look at how many of the Senators' unblocked shot attempts came from the net-front and slot area:
Evolving-Hockey.com
Squares are scaled to expected goal (xG) value. Larger = higher value.
"I’d like to believe that we can play a tighter game, and I think that’s our challenge moving forward," Sullivan said.
As for Jarry, he just views the busy night as making up for the time he missed.
"Well rested," Jarry responded when asked how he felt physically after facing 45 shots and 72 shot attempts. "I’ve had a little bit of time off, so obviously it’s never easy having to watch games, and it’s never easy having to watch guys go out every night and give it their all and you can’t be out there with them."
Jarry improved his record to 16-5-4 on the season with a 2.68 goals against average and career-best .921 save percentage. He has saved just shy of nine goals above expected based on the quality of chances he's faced this season, and that number will only continue to grow if his performance stays anywhere near the level he reached Friday.
JEANINE LEECH / GETTY
Jake Guentzel shoots and scores against Cam Talbot during the second period Friday at PPG Paints Arena.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins' first line of Guentzel, Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust didn't have their most dominant night, as they were just plus-one in shot attempts while getting out-chanced in 10:39 together at 5-on-5, but they made their opportunities count by producing both of the team's goals at full-strength. Guentzel scored them, coming up with his 19th and 20th goals of the season. I've got a Freeze Frame breaking down his first tally.
• And Guentzel's second tally of the night to pretty much put the game out of reach for the Senators in the third period:
• Jeff Petry was activated from long-term injured reserve prior to the game and made his return to the lineup, playing for the first time since Dec. 10. The Penguins wasted no time getting him back into the swing of things, as he led all Penguins skaters with 25:25 of ice time. Taylor Haase has more on his night here.
• As a quick note, I think it's a really smart decision to reunite Marcus Pettersson with Petry now that the latter is back in the lineup. Of every NHL defense pairing to play at least 200 minutes together at 5-on-5 this season, Pettersson-Petry rank fourth with a 61.1% share of expected goals. That can be massive for the Penguins moving forward if a long(er)-term partner emerges for Kris Letang when he returns.
• With the game still scoreless in the first period, Brock McGinn threw a thundering hit on Erik Brannstrom. Taking exception to the hit, Travis Hamonic went after McGinn and fought him. On top of getting five minutes for fighting, Hamonic was assigned a two-minute minor for instigating that changed the direction of the game. It was on the ensuing power play that Rickard Rakell potted the game's first goal to put the Penguins out front.
• The aforementioned Rakell goal, his 17th of the season:
• Rakell now has four goals in the last seven games, all coming on the power play. He's got three assists to go along with them during that time, and is now on a 30-goal, 56-point pace over a full season. He has responded quite nicely to his quietest stretch of the season.
• This might as well be a scheduled bullet for every game at this point: Zucker continues to play outstanding hockey. He once again brought his infectious energy every single shift en route to attempting six shots in just shy of 19 minutes of work. One of those attempts -- and it was gorgeous, I might add -- caught Cam Talbot napping in the first period for a 2-0 Penguins lead:
The hustle to hunt that puck down was one thing. But to improve the condition of the puck in a snap to divert pressure like that? Wow. He earned every bit of his 13th of the season. In 41 games in 2022-23, Zucker's now just four goals shy of matching his total of 17 from the previous 79 games.
• Is there anyone in the NHL who loves scoring more than Zucker?
I asked him that very question after the game.
"Probably," Zucker said with a laugh after thinking for a second. "It’s just fun. Scoring goals is why you play the game. Winning games, winning Cups, that’s the goal out here. For me, I know scoring goals helps win games. That means you’re gonna hopefully win a Cup later on. It’s just been a lot of fun, but I’ve got to give credit to Geno and Raks and the rest of my teammates. They’re the ones that help me do this."
• Evgeni Malkin didn't find his way on the scoresheet after producing five points in his previous two games, but it felt like he was on the cusp of burying one throughout the night. He had a team-high seven shot attempts. When you see the way he was commanding the puck ...
... yeah, you get it.
• Ty Smith was a lineup casualty and did not play due to Petry's return. It was a bit surprising to see Smith go from hefty usage that included quarterbacking the top power play, to then finding himself out of the lineup. I think we're still some time away from really figuring out what the Penguins have in Smith, but I likely would have had him in the lineup over Mark Friedman. The Dumoulin-Smith pairing got absolutely blitzed by the Senators on Wednesday, so that might've had something to do with it, but it's worth bearing in mind that Smith is the only Penguins defenseman not named Kris Letang to pull positive results out of Dumoulin this season.
• It was pretty apparent how amped up P.O Joseph was to play his brother, Mathieu, for the first time. Over his first few shifts of the game he made several really nice, high-level plays under pressure to break the Penguins out of the defensive zone with stretch passes. He was also pretty assertive in the offensive zone and did a good job of shrinking the zone to sustain pressure. Doing so allowed him to attempt four shots during 5-on-5 play, all of which were on goal.
He did get a little too aggressive during the second period and got caught deep in the offensive zone as the Senators raced up ice. Brady Tkachuk ended up scoring on the sequence for the Senators' only goal. All in all, though, it was a solid night for No. 73.
• Taylor has much more on the Joseph brothers' first matchup against each other here.
• With the victory, the Penguins improved to 23-15-7 this season and currently sit fourth in the Metropolitan Division by points percentage (.589).
• Thanks, as always, for reading!
DANNY SHIREY / DKPS
A quiet PPG Paints Arena following a 4-1 victory for the home team.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Jake Guentzel, Penguins LW
2. Tristan Jarry, Penguins G
3. Jason Zucker, Penguins LW
THE INJURIES
• Defenseman Jan Rutta has an upper-body injury and was placed on injured reserve prior to the game.
• Defenseman Kris Letang was placed on long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury prior to the game. He is skating and can be activated at any time.
• Right winger Josh Archibald is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and is skating with the team.
• Left winger Ryan Poehling in on injured reserve with an upper-body injury and is skating with the team.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Brock McGinn - Teddy Blueger - Jeff Carter
Drew O'Connor - Jonathan Gruden - Danton Heinen
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
Brian Dumoulin - Mark Friedman
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel
And for D.J. Smith's Senators:
Brady Tkachuk - Tim Stützle - Drake Batherson
Alex DeBrincat - Josh Norris - Claude Giroux
Derick Brassard - Shane Pinto - Mathieu Joseph
Parker Kelly - Mark Kastelic - Austin Watson
Thomas Chabot - Jacob Bernard-Docker
Jake Sanderson - Travis Hamonic
Erik Brannstrom - Nick Holden
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins practice at 12 p.m. at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Saturday. Their next game is Sunday at 2:08 p.m. in Newark against the Devils.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
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