MONTREAL — The Pittsburgh Penguins have performed three very different ways in the first three games of the regular season.
Bad game against a good team.
Good game against a mediocre team.
Mediocre game against a good team.
They enter their Canadian Thanksgiving game in Montreal with a 1-2-0 record, and a victory on Monday would be pretty significant. The Penguins’ October schedule is brutal, and, as long as they can hover around the .500 mark this month, coach Mike Sullivan’s team will be in reasonable shape entering November.
Here are some tidbits I’ve picked up over the past few days on the road, along with a look at some players trending up and others trending down in the season’s first week.
Goaltending
It was surprising that Sullivan didn’t go back to Tristan Jarry on Saturday in Toronto. Instead, Sullivan played rookie Joel Blomqvist for a second consecutive game. The Penguins didn’t win on Saturday, but the rookie rewarded Sullivan’s faith in him. He was one of the best players on the ice for a second straight game.
So, where do things stand with Jarry? And what happens when Alex Nedeljkovic returns from injury? And is Blomqvist the real deal?
My understanding is that there is open competition for playing time between the pipes.
Jarry was given a five-year contract in 2023, which usually comes with extra opportunities for a player to assert himself even if he struggles.
With Jarry, this hasn’t been the case.
He lost his job for the final 13 games of last season — the new contract’s first season — and he doesn’t seem to be entrenched as the No. 1 goaltender right now. It took one game for fans to focus ire on Jarry. The 6-0 loss on opening night brought Jarry mock cheers at PPG Paints Arena and attacks on social media. Then, along came Blomqvist. And the injured Nedeljkovic, the same guy who took Jarry’s job last season, is waiting in the wings.
Life will be much easier for the Penguins if Jarry has an outstanding season, and maybe he will. One bad game is only one game. His contract, however, won’t guarantee that he receives the bulk of the playing time, for many reasons.
For one, the Penguins didn’t want to give Jarry a five-year contract. But the summer 2023 goaltender market was awful, and it’s not like the organization doesn’t like Jarry. He’s a two-time NHL All-Star with clear talent. His lack of reliability over the years, however, made the organization uneasy about giving him five years. General manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas wanted the Penguins to be contenders entering the 2023-24 season, so he did what he had to do.
Moving forward, Jarry will be given chances to claim the net. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t get the call Monday in Montreal, but the Penguins goaltenders have been told that good performance will be rewarded with playing time, regardless of salary.
So, the pressure on Jarry is rapidly growing.
Blomqvist has not looked out of place in two NHL games. He’s a legitimate NHL prospect and appears ready to graduate from the AHL. The Penguins will need to make room for him sooner rather than later.
Nedeljkovic, meanwhile, remains a factor. Dubas suggested after last season that Nedeljkovic likely wouldn’t be back because he presumably would have received more money on the open market than the Penguins could match.
Instead, they signed him to a team-friendly, two-year deal. While some of Nedeljkovic’s numbers were not spectacular last season, the Penguins went 18-7-7 last season in his starts and 19-25-5 in Jarry’s starts. Many of the two goalies’ numbers were comparable, and, in fact, some of Jarry’s more advanced numbers were better than Nedeljkovic last season. Coaches are in the business of winning games, though, and Nedeljkovic blew Jarry out of the water in that regard.
Sullivan showed his hand on Saturday. The Penguins have missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, and the losing has taken a toll on Sullivan, whose competitive fire is his most admirable trait. His message is simple: If you play well, you’ll play again.
The Penguins want Jarry to thrive, but they’re past the point of coddling him. He’s almost 30, and his performance in high-pressure moments is unreliable. Any evidence of consistency is nearly non-existent.
The starting goaltender moving forward is anyone’s guess. The Penguins may not have a regular starter for a while.
A fresh start for Jarry elsewhere seems reasonable, but I don’t know that any team would entertain his contract. The Penguins, a team source said, were willing to move him during this past summer, but other teams were not interested.
Bottom line: The Penguins appreciate Jarry’s talent, and the coaching staff was impressed with Jarry’s summer conditioning program. But that performance against the Rangers in the opener did some serious damage. If Nedeljkovic or Blomqvist give the Penguins a better chance to win, Jarry won’t be the regular starter.
Power play
The Penguins have scored on the power play in consecutive games, which is notable.
Gauging the Penguins’ progress in developing chemistry on the power play is difficult because Erik Karlsson missed most of training camp and then was introduced to a completely foreign position on the left wing wall in the spot famously formerly occupied by Mario Lemieux and Phil Kessel. Karlsson has the skill to thrive in that area, but he’s quick to point out that he has never played there before.
At times, it has shown. I don’t think he’s comfortable there. Maybe he eventually will be. Or maybe not. It’s fascinating.
The Penguins staff wants Karlsson to, essentially, shoot at will, which is not his first instinct. Let’s see how it works out.
Assistant coach David Quinn has told the Penguins power play that, more than anything, he wants more tempo, he wants a high shot volume and he wants to swarm toward the net. He wants the Penguins to run downhill toward the opposition’s goaltender. Last season, they retreated on the power play, consistently moving toward the boards on each side of the ice. It was bizarre. Quinn has identified the problem.
Trending up
• Blomqvist: His numbers have been good through two games, but he’s been especially impressive in terms of the eye test. The Red Wings and the Maple Leafs generated lots of looks, and more times than not, they were thwarted by Blomqvist, whose combination of talent and competitiveness has endeared him to the locker room.
• Evgeni Malkin: He’s been the Penguins’ best player through three games. The gallop is back.
• Ryan Graves: Yeah, he was terrible in the opener. So was everyone else. Graves has been solid during the past two games. Progress.
Trending down
• Jarry: Yeah.
• Rutger McGroarty: His future is bright, but he’s been barely noticeable.
• Cody Glass: Far, far too quiet.
The week ahead
• Monday: Penguins at Montreal, 7:30 p.m.
• Wednesday: Buffalo at Penguins, 7 p.m.
• Friday: Carolina at Penguins, 7 p.m.
• Sunday: Penguins at Winnipeg, 3 p.m.
(Photo of Joel Blomqvist: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)
