Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry seeks improvement in shootouts

On the surface, Tristan Jarry’s base numbers are pretty good.

Through nine games this season, the Penguins’ starting goaltender’s goals-against average of 2.28 and .926 save percentage are very sturdy.

If nothing else, each figure represents an improvement over the 2.75 goals-against average and .909 save percentage he compiled during the 2020-21 campaign.

But at 4-2-3, Jarry has lost more than he’s won in 2021-22.

Much of that futility has come beyond regulation as Jarry has lost all three shootouts he has participated in while winning one contest in overtime.

As far a the shootouts go, Jarry leads the league in games that have gone to a shootout, shootout losses and shootout goals against, having yielded seven scores on 10 shots.

It’s a part of his game he never has been particularly strong (or weak) in. Before this season, Jarry had a 3-2 record in shootouts and had stopped eight of the 14 shootout attempts he faced.

“It’s something where it’s you and the player, and the player has the advantage,” Jarry said. “They’re able to slow down, speed up, and you’re basically just sitting there waiting. It’s something that I think I have to improve. It’s something that I’ve been working on. It’s tough. They’re the best players in the world coming at you. I think I just have to be more assertive and make sure I’m showing my best version of myself in there. I’ll be the first one to be the happiest when that does happen because it’s been tough.”

The Penguins’ last two games, a 5-4 home loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday and a 3-2 road loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, each ended in shootouts with Jarry in net. In those contests, he allowed goals on five of the seven combined shots he faced.

Jarry suggested there is limited scouting a goaltender can do for shootouts, which are mostly an instinctual endeavor.

“It’s all reading and reacting,” Jarry said. “They’re doing it just as much as you are. If you move left, they’re going to try to go right. It’s nothing that you could really do. It’s tough.”

During Tuesday’s loss, Jarry was stout in the first 65 minutes of play as he made 30 saves on 32 shots. On one sequence during the third period, he denied Blackhawks forward Mike Hardman on a breakaway at the 15-minute, 37-second mark. Following that denial, the Penguins transitioned up ice, and forward Jeff Carter scored only 6 seconds later to tie the score, 2-2.

The difference between a breakaway during regulation or overtime compared to a shootout attempt is vivid in Jarry’s estimation.

“Well, the defenseman chasing is making the whole difference,” Jarry said. “They’re taking the left or the right side, and the (attacking) player can only go left or right. … It’s completely different. You have no backchecker. You have nobody pressuring you. You have all the time in the world. They could wait and take 10 minutes to come down for the shootout if they want.”

Jarry and just about anyone with a rooting interest in the Penguins clearly want him to do better in shootout. But he feels his overall body of work has been satisfactory independent of his struggles in shootouts.

“It’s a separate issue,” Jarry said. “It’s something where I want to be better every game. I think every game, I’ve been giving the team a chance, and I think that’s ultimately what my goal is. That’s something that I wanted to do this year is just make sure I’m giving the team a chance to win every game. It’s just putting my best foot forward every game.”

Heinen promoted

AP

In 11 games this season, Penguins forward Danton Heinen leads the team with four goals.

Forward Danton Heinen has emerged as the Penguins’ leading goal-scorer this season with four goals in 11 games.

It’s fair to laud that as testament to Heinen making the most of the elevated roles he has been afforded with a team missing so many of its top forwards due to various medical maladies.

At the same time, it also is symbolic of how dire the Penguins’ struggles with traditional hockey-related injuries and covid-19 have been this season that a journeyman who was jettisoned as a restricted free agent this past offseason by his previous team, the Anaheim Ducks, leads the squad in putting pucks into the net.

Either way, the Penguins deployed Heinen on their fourth line to open the past two games, in part, because of top-line right winger Bryan Rust’s recent return from injury. However, in the late stages of Tuesday’s loss, Heinen was promoted to the left wing of the second line. Then during Wednesday’s practice in Cranberry, he manned the left wing of the third line in place of Zach Aston-Reese, who was slid to the fourth line.

That alteration figures to be utilized in Thursday’s home game against the Florida Panthers.

“(Tuesday) night, down by two goals going into the third (period), we were looking for a little bit of a spark,” assistant coach Todd Reirden said. “Made a couple of adjustments with a few of our lines last night. Liked the look of it. Danton’s a guy that I think has had a really strong start to the year. He’s our leading (goal) scorer. To give him a little bit more opportunity, I think he’s earned it. Trying to find ways and (opportunities) to get more ice time. I liked some of the things that he was adding (Tuesday). That was what we looked at (Wednesday).

“Obviously, every game takes its own course. But that will be one of the thoughts that we look to go with (Thursday) against obviously a really tough Florida team.”

Kapanen traded (in Russia)

AP

Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen was the 25th overall selection in the 2013 KHL draft.

Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen was on the move Wednesday. On a different continent.

In Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), Kapanen’s rights in that league were traded by Barys Nur-Sultan, a team based in Kazakhstan, to SKA St. Petersburg, an eastern Russian team located relatively close to the border of Finland, Kapanen’s home country.

The move largely was orchestrated for financial considerations as it cleared some salary cap space for SKA St. Petersburg against the KHL’s upper limit of 900 million rubles (approximately $14.4 million). Veteran forward Linden Vey, a former NHLer, went to Barys Nur-Sultan in the transaction.

Kapanen actually was selected by Barys Nur-Sultan as a 17-year-old in the 2013 KHL draft during the first round (No. 25 overall) but never played for that team and is not likely to leave the Penguins or the NHL anytime soon.

KHL teams occasionally will draft a player with NHL aspirations, in part, to garner attention for promotional purposes but also to retain their rights in the event that player has a contractual dispute or the NHL has an occasional work stoppage such as a lockout.

As a 17-year-old, Edmonton Oilers superstar forward Connor McDavid was a second-round pick (No. 77 overall) of the 2014 KHL draft by Medvescak Zagreb, a team based in Croatia that no longer plays in the KHL.

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