CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Alex Nedeljkovic made a short drive to take a long trip that is probably perfectly timed for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Not quite fresh following a nearly five-hour drive from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he played on an AHL conditioning assignment Friday night, Nedeljkovic practiced at UPMC Sports Complex before joining the team charter to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where the Penguins will open a four-game road trip Sunday afternoon. That flight included three goalies — veterans Nedeljkovic and Tristan Jarry, and rookie Joel Blomqvist — and the coaching staff’s plan for distributing playing time over the next week.
Unsurprisingly, coach Mike Sullivan did not share details about who will take the net against the Jets.
That is consistent with how Sullivan has operated during his long tenure behind the bench. Though the starter for the next game is told the day before, Sullivan does not share the information publicly until the day of that game. Usually, that news drops after a morning skate, but the Penguins won’t have one Sunday because they play the Jets in the afternoon.
So, other than those who need to know, we’ll all find out together around the same time on Sunday.
That’s how it will work for games on the western Canada portion of the trip, which opens Tuesday night against the Flames in Calgary.
Discussing goalies is one of Sullivan’s least favorite responsibilities as a coach. He wasn’t one as a player. The position was not his specialty as an assistant coach. And he has entrusted most of the communication with goalies while with the Penguins to the goalie coaches.
The current goalie coach is Andy Chiodo, and the challenge facing him is immense.
Nedeljkovic must knock off rust before his first start after missing about three weeks with a lower-body injury. Blomqvist has to continue developing at the NHL level quicker than anybody in the organization anticipated. Jarry needs fixing.
A stretch away from the friendly — or in the case of Jarry, not-so-friendly — confines of home should give Chiodo a fighting chance to pull off what often proves improbable in the NHL: Making it work with three goalies on the active roster.
There’s a reason most clubs only carry two goalies. It’s not just that only two can dress for a game. It’s also that practices turn wonky when three goalies are on an NHL roster.
That was true Saturday, as one of either Nedeljkovic, Blomqvist, or Jarry was always standing idly near the boards or trying to work on individual skills as the other two manned the blue-painted creases at opposite ends of the ice. Blomqvist was the first goalie to exit, with Nedeljkovic and Jarry getting in reps with Chiodo for about 25 minutes after practice officially ended.
Hardly ideal.
However, with Jarry off to the worst start of his career and facing intense public scrutiny, Nedeljkovic essentially starting from scratch after an injury early in training camp, and Blomqvist unexpectedly emerging as the hot hand — well, what are the Penguins to do?
None of the options for keeping two goalies is appealing.
Demoting Blomqvist would go against Sullivan’s oft-stated pledge to have results determine playing time, let alone icing a lineup that gives a veteran-laden group the best opportunity to win games.
Jarry’s contract, especially combined with a second-half slide last season that carried over into this one, likely makes him unmovable by way of trade. He counts too much against the salary cap ($5.375 million), has too many seasons remaining after this one (three), and comes with restrictions in the form of a 12-team no-trade clause for dealing him away to be a viable option.
Placing him on waivers is technically an option. If he cleared, Jarry could go to the AHL and the Penguins would save $1.15 million in cap space while he’s in the minors.
Other teams have taken a similar approach with veteran goalies on lengthy contracts.
That’s not a road president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas is keen to travel, at least certainly not yet.
Nedeljkovic was re-signed in the offseason not to be the No. 1 per se, but he was on track to start the opener — traditionally reserved for the top goalie — before sustaining his injury.
Also, though he’s exceeded reasonable expectations in a small sample size of games, Blomqvist was not deemed ready for steady NHL work by management only a few weeks ago. Nedeljkovic was retained largely because management felt uneasy about going into the season with Jarry, who was benched for the final 13 games last season and has a sub-.900 save percentage in his past 30 regular-season appearances, and Blomqvist, who everybody agreed at the end of last season required more seasoning as a 22-year-old with only 47 AHL games under his belt.
The Penguins don’t have a goalie controversy, it’s more of a complication.
They have Jarry, signed two years ago to be the franchise goalie, looking a bit broken. They have Nedeljkovic, who has played in 50 or more games only once since becoming an NHL regular at the start of this decade and is coming off a lower-body injury. They have Blomqvist, a rookie who has never faced NHL-caliber shooters over an extended stretch.
OK, maybe what the Penguins have when it comes to their goalies is a bit of a mess.
When things get like this, the Penguins have turned to one person in particular for the past two decades. That person is their captain, and also their best player, Sidney Crosby.
He wanted to be a goalie, like his father. He occasionally plays goalie in stick games during the offseason.
None of that is to suggest Crosby understands the position’s quirks, only that goalies’ quirks are magnified. The same is true about everything with goalies.
Crosby surely doesn’t want a somewhat encouraging start — the Penguins are 3-3-0, although they have yet to defeat a playoff team from last season — to tilt sideways in Canada because of a disjointed goalie dynamic.
“We’re all part of a team, we’re all trying to do our part to contribute and help,” Crosby said. “I think when it comes to goaltending — they understand that, too. It’s not something they just figure out in the NHL. They understand there’s a lot more pressure and responsibility that comes with that position.
“You just try to support each other like you typically would for any other player. That’s kind of the approach.”
(Top photo of Alex Nedeljkovic and Tristan Jarry: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)
