One shot, one goal.
Two shots, two goals.
Five shots, three goals. (With the third goal coming 32 seconds after the Penguins had scored to cut their deficit to 2-1.)
Pulling goalie Tristan Jarry after Buffalo’s third goal Wednesday was an easy decision. He looked lazy and disengaged. More significantly, the puck kept going into the net.
It was Jarry’s second straight farcical outing at home: In the season opener seven days earlier, he also conceded on the first shot en route to a 6-0 loss to the New York Rangers.
At this point, Jarry isn’t exactly a crowd favorite at PPG Paints Arena. That matters. The Penguins played to just 86% capacity in Wednesday’s 6-5 win over Buffalo.
Now come the hard decisions.
The Penguins should have ditched Jarry after he blew their playoff series with the New York Islanders in 2021 via a torrent of puck-handling errors and choking in the clutch. He should have lost the franchise’s trust permanently.
Instead, Jarry got a five-year contract with an average annual value of $5.375 million on July 1, 2023. Jarry is scheduled to remain a Penguin through 2028. GM Kyle Dubas gave free-agent defenseman Ryan Graves a six-year deal at $4.5 million per on that same date.
It’s a day that will live in infamy. (It might not be long before Dubas looks like a wartime president.)
It seemed understandable at the time. Jarry was the devil the Penguins knew.
But now you can flip Jarry over. He’s done on this side.
Jarry has a goals-against average of 5.47. Who does he think he is, David Bednar? (Jarry’s save percentage is .833. Also horrific, but that doesn’t lend itself as well to the ERA joke.)
Jarry has lost 11 of his last 17 games.
Jarry has been pulled in four of his last 10 starts.
How does coach Mike Sullivan put Jarry back in the blue paint after how horrible he’s been? After he didn’t start last season’s final 13 games via losing his job to journeyman Alex Nedeljkovic?
This isn’t a slump. This is what Jarry is.
But Jarry can’t be traded. What team would want him? He’s also got a limited-movement clause. Jarry submits a list of 12 teams he can refuse being dealt to.
The Penguins can’t retain salary if they move Jarry. They’re already doing that with three other departed players, the limit as per the NHL’s CBA.
He could be waived, then sent to the Penguins’ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton farm club if he clears. That would save the Penguins $1.15 million under the cap.
But then a discarded, washed-up veteran is sharing the net in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with 20-year-old prospect Sergei Murashov, who figures to battle Joel Blomqvist for the Penguins’ long-term goalie job. It’s tough to see Jarry as a mentor in that situation. It could turn toxic.
If Blomqvist goes back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, he and Murashov would be in a healthy, competitive situation.
But if Jarry stays in Pittsburgh, he has to play. Nedeljkovic isn’t a workhorse, though he performed well in those 13 straight starts to end last season. (The locker room often said that Nedeljkovic “battled.” Which implied that Jarry doesn’t.)
Nedeljkovic is in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a conditioning assignment after starting the season hurt.
The Penguins begin a road trip through Western Canada on Sunday at Winnipeg. Blomqvist figures to start there. Probably Tuesday at Calgary, too.
But the Penguins play back-to-back nights next Friday and Saturday at Edmonton and Vancouver, two very good teams. Nedeljkovic should be back with the Penguins by then. But if Blomqvist returns to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Jarry figures to start against either the Oilers or Canucks. Yuck.
It might be best to keep three goalies till the end of the road trip by way of not playing Jarry. But doing that too long would turn malignant.
Blomqvist, 22, is in just his second full year playing pro hockey in North America. Giving him more time in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to adjust might be best for his development.
But that keeps Jarry in the Penguins’ net. Any number of games is too many.
This isn’t a knee-jerk reaction. Jarry has been that bad for that long. He looks even worse than his stats. Unprofessional, as a colleague described Jarry.
The Penguins missed the playoffs by three points last season, by two points in 2023. Every game counts.
If you think Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang deserve better in the twilight of their glorious careers, improved goaltending is a good place to start.
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Jarry isn’t good enough. He’s proven that. He’s been in the NHL since 2017 and done little besides frustrate via underachievement. He’s got the tools, but no toolbox.
But he’s going to stay with the Penguins, and he’s going to play a significant amount of games. Any other path seems too difficult to navigate.
By the way, I think Bednar is a fine closer who just had a bad year. But I can’t pass up a punchline.