Kovacevic: A very Metro reminder that more will be needed from Jarry

The Rangers, for now, are the class of the Metro Division. And by season's end, through whatever sorting, they'll have a couple other teams as company in the Hurricanes and Devils.

That sound about right?

OK, cool. So stick with me.

To compete for a Stanley Cup playoff spot, these Penguins, who until this past spring could cite that as a perennial rite, will need to either rise above one of those three teams or, at the least, fare well enough against them to have an upper hand on the rest of the field. And within that, while keeping it realistic after a slow start in the standings, they'll be fortunate to finish fourth.

Still about right?

Fine. Now, to contend for the Cup ... yeah, not this.

"We weren’t really good in any area, to be honest with you," Sidney Crosby would say at his stall after a 5-2 deflation by the Devils on this Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena, one that saw New Jersey smash a third-period tie with three unanswered strikes and, of course, one that snapped a five-game winning streaks. "We had a couple leads, and then they got it back right away. They were a desperate team. I thought they just played better. They outworked us."

Yep.

"I don't think we were good enough," Bryan Rust would say after scoring both of his side's goals. "I don't know if we had the energy that we would have liked. We had too many turnovers. ... We've got to learn our lessons. We've got to bring it every night. This one doesn't sit well with anybody."

Nope.

And it shouldn't. Not in any facet. Including, as those two credibly cited, the effort.

See, it's one thing to rip off a few Ws in a row, it's another thing to start 2-0 inside the division against the Capitals and Blue Jackets, and it's quite another to enter a four-day stretch that lines up the Devils, Hurricanes and, oh, yeah, the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights, only to lay an egg like this. Which they really, really did, Rust's prowess aside.

Worse by far, I'm not so sure this shortfall's about effort. They should be so lucky.

For one, the Penguins went a combined 2-7-3 against the Rangers (2-2), Hurricanes (0-2-2) and Devils (0-3-1) in the 2022-23 NHL season. New Jersey alone has taken the past six meetings by an absurd aggregate score of 27-9. That's not a fluke, my friends, and that's definitely not about effort.

"They were the better team tonight," Sid would say, and he didn't need to add the time element.

For another, the current Devils had limped here as losers of three in a row, in large part because they were without franchise centerpiece Jack Hughes and two other top-shelf forwards, Timo Meier and Nico Hischier. They should've been on their heels from the drop of the puck. And yet, they were still the speedier, smarter team in this game, applying Lindy Ruff's aggressive counter-rush system like they were lifers.

"We've talked about playing this way, and now we've finally shown it," third-liner Curtis Lazar would beam down the hall. "That's close to the best full 60 minutes we've had this year."

Oh, I'll bet.

And for yet another, at the risk of being that guy who bypasses all the actual hockey intricacies available and goes right for the goaltending ... man, I'm sorry, but that wasn't it.

To be clear, Tristan Jarry wasn't singularly at fault. If I were to write or even think any such thing, it'd be beyond idiotic. Especially on an evening where the Devils were allowed to soar through the neutral zone like Dutch speedskaters.

That said, this was the New Jersey response seven minutes after Rust opened the scoring:

That's Lazar short-handed. It was a terrible power play for the home team, maybe the season's sloppiest, turning in zero shots and three giveaways. So again, there's blame across the board.

But dude, make a save.

That shot's an unscreened nothing-burger from some distance. By a bottom-six plugger with 41 goals to show for a decade in the league.

Rust's other goal came early in the second and brought another brief lead, this time less than a minute long:

OK, so this one's 0.00% on Jarry. It's being included in this column only for completeness and to support the aforementioned contentions that the general effort was lacking. There's no way a no-goal fourth-liner should get one, two, three cracks off a laboriously developing rush like that. Everyone but Jarry blew this one, in fact, chiefly Erik Karlsson for not routinely boxing out.

That took these teams into the third period tied, 2-2, at which point, to an extent, any hockey game's going to be made or broken on goaltending. First mistake loses 'n' at.

Took only 2:35:

Jesper Bratt's got serious skill and, as such, he should never have the luxury to tap the cruise-control nav through anyone's attacking slot like that, much less to spin Jake Guentzel like a top in gaining the zone. But as Bratt approaches the net, then starts taking himself almost out of a shooting angle, it's unmistakable that Jarry does little to move with him. And that he drops to both knees for no reason. And that he lets his blocker sag. And that Bratt didn't even need to pick a corner, so he'd instead clang the center pipe.

Dude, make a save.

Then, at mid-period, there'd be two more 20 seconds part:

Statue-like defending. Embarrassing. But the finish by Alexander Holtz was as easy as everything else on the sequence. 

And check out the degree to which Jarry was fooled:

SPORTSNET PITTSBURGH

Yikes.

Last one, finally:

Two-on-one. Against the distant-third defense pairing. A laser by Tyler Toffoli.

I don't care. That's five goals on 31 shots. Inside the division. With a chance -- arguably a need -- to make a statement against an opponent that's pretty much planting a flag in these parts. 

Make a save.

I asked Jarry how tough to take this result must've been after five wins in a row in which the entire team, goaltender included, had tracked so well:

“Yeah, it was a bit of an up-and-down game, obviously," he'd reply. "They were on the right side of things more than we were. It was a bit of back-and-forth. I think when we’re playing our game, those things kind of close up, and I think we take a lot of that away. I think it’s just getting better next game.”

Within the Metro, Saturday night in North Carolina, that'd mean he'll have to be better than his counterpart. Because the assembly of skaters in front of him might not be.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Jesper Bratt, Devils RW
2. Bryan Rust, Penguins RW
3. Curtis Lazar, Penguins RW

THE INJURIES

• Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (lower body) is on long-term injured reserve and can't return until Sunday. He's resumed practicing with the team.

• Defenseman John Ludvig (concussion) is on long-term injured reserve and can't return until Sunday, though he'll first go through an AHL rehabilitation assignment. He's resumed practicing with the team.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith-Evgeni Malkin-Rickard Rakell
Drew O'Connor-Lars Eller-Radim Zohorna
Matt Nieto-Noel Acciari-Vinnie Hinostroza

Ryan Graves-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea-Chad Ruhwedel

And for Lindy Ruff's Devils:

Tyler Toffoli-Michael McLeod-Jesper Bratt
Ondrej Palat-Dawson Mercer-Alexander Holtz
Max Willman-Erik Haula-Curtis Lazar
Tomas Nosek-Nathan Bastian

Jonas Siegenthaler-Dougie Hamilton
Kevin Bahl-John Marino
Brendan Smith-Luke Hughes
Colin Miller

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE SCHEDULE

The scheduled practice for Friday was canceled after the game, meaning the only activity will by flying to Raleigh for the game against the Hurricanes the next night.

THE CONTENT

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