A closer look at the Penguins' winning ways

In the midst of a stretch of four games in only six days, the Pittsburgh Penguins had a brisk practice that lasted barely a half-hour Wednesday in Cranberry.

All in all, it was an easy day.

Of course, everything is easier when you’re winning.

Such has been the case for the Penguins, who have won 17 of their 19 games (17-2-0) since Dec. 4.

They haven’t enjoyed that rate of success at every juncture this season.

For instance, they won only two of 10 games (2-6-2) during a rough patch in late October and early December.

So they definitely appreciate their good fortune as of late.

“It’s definitely fun coming to the rink when you’re winning games,” forward Danton Heinen. “Obviously, when you’re losing, you don’t want to get too down on yourself. But it’s a lot easier when things are going well.”

Specifically, what has gone well over the past seven weeks?

Leaning on Jarry

All-Star goaltender Tristan Jarry has had a major role in this surge. Not just because he’s playing well but because he’s been playing a lot.

Over the team’s past 19 games, Jarry has played in 15. Over that stretch he has a 13-2-0 record, a 2.33 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage.

Meanwhile, backup Casey DeSmith has struggled. He has a 3-0-0 record since Dec. 4, but he was pulled in two of the five games he has appeared in favor of Jarry. A bout with covid-19 that sidelined him in an Anaheim hotel room for nearly a week didn’t help.

And the coaches even were toying with the idea of using reserve Louis Domingue as the regular backup after Domingue looked stout by making 40 saves in a 2-1 road overtime win against the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 15. But those designs went by the wayside after Domingue suffered a right foot injury Jan. 20 during a morning skate.

Regardless, this stretch of success has been a byproduct of Jarry’s presence.

“I think he’s confident,” Heinen said. “We’re confident in him. He makes the big saves at the big times when we need it. His ability to just have that knack to make that big save is huge for us.”

Consistency on defense

While covid-19 cases perforated the blue line — and all aspects of the roster — in the early stages of the season, the Penguins have had the fortune of dressing the same set of defensemen for every game since Nov. 14.

The lone exception was a 3-2 road loss to the Dallas Stars on Jan. 8 when a handful of covid-19 cases among the forward ranks prompted the coaches to dress an irregular lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen, including reserve Mark Friedman.

But for the most part, the team’s three pairings — Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin, John Marino and Marcus Pettersson as well as Mike Matheson and Chad Ruhwedel — have been intact for more than two months, including the ongoing surge.

“It means a lot,” Pettersson said. “We’ve had kind of the same pairings. We’ve managed to stay healthy so far. With covid, we had early issues early in the year. It was kind of back and forth with pairings. It helps a lot. We all know each other pretty well.”

Deep up front

In contrast, the depth among the forward ranks has been an ongoing challenge seemingly from the season opener. Even over the past seven weeks, all four lines have been missing one or two forwards.

At the moment, Teddy Blueger is on injured reserve, and Drew O’Connor and Jason Zucker are on long-term injured reserve.

That has forced the Penguins to tap into their depth with the likes of prospects such as Kasper Bjorkqvist and Radim Zohorna. In total, the Penguins have dressed 19 forwards this season.

“You don’t win with just with 12 forwards and six defensemen and two goalies,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “That’s a complete team effort. It’s not just the coaching staff and the players on the team. It’s our scouting staff and our management team that go out and draft players. It’s our development department and our minor-league coaching staff (with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) that improve all of our players’ respective games to prepare them to play and compete at the NHL level. There’s a lot of goings-on behind the scenes, I think, that make an organization like Pittsburgh successful. It’s a team effort in the truest sense of the word.

“A lot of these guys don’t get the accolades for the success that the organization has had. We have such great people in all the respective departments that help us acquire and continue to build the depth each and every year. … With the nature of the business of the game, it’s hard to keep teams together with the salary cap and some of those challenges. We’ve got to find players, whether it be through college free agency or players from Europe … where we can plug these guys into our team and they can play games for us. Our organization, in my whole tenure here, has been able to do that.”