Tim Benz: Tristan Jarry looking to continue his 'sneaky good' play

As the Pittsburgh Penguins prepare to face the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul on Friday night, all eyes will be on the goalie in the other team’s net.

The guy who so memorably wore a Penguins jersey for the first 13 years of his career.

It is Marc-Andre Fleury Night at the Excel Center, honoring Fleury’s 1,000 games played and his 552 wins to vault into second place on the NHL’s all-time wins list.

But the goalie who will likely be playing in Pittsburgh’s crease is worth watching as well these days.

Tristan Jarry is fresh off a 3-0 shutout over Winnipeg. That was his league-leading sixth of the season. His goals-against average of 2.45 is eighth in the NHL, and his save percentage of .916 is ninth, just one slot behind teammate Alex Nedeljkovic (.918).

“He’s played so well for us all year long,” winger Jake Guentzel said Tuesday after the win. “He’s our backbone of our team. Both our goalies are playing well.”

Collectively, Jarry and Nedeljkovic have backstopped the Penguins to a team save percentage of .917, third best in the NHL. The Penguins’ team goals-\ against average of 2.64 is fifth best in hockey. Meanwhile, the Pens are just 21st with 2.96 goals scored per game.

That’s certainly the inverse of the franchise’s decades-long reputation of winning with offensive firepower first and foremost. But with a struggling power play and many of the offensive stars (aside from Sidney Crosby) dealing with injuries, slumps, or both, the Penguins have had to win in a different manner.

That’s when they have managed to win at all, of course. Something they didn’t do enough of in the first half of the season.

The Pens enter the first weekend after the All-Star break with just 23 wins and 53 points. They are still in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, two spots and five points out of the final wild-card hole.

“We’re not in the position that we want to be,” Jarry said Tuesday after the win against the Jets. “That’s the goal. We want to be in a playoff position. Obviously, we’re not happy with where we are, and we need points. Every point that we can get helps us.”

Jarry has been a ballast of sorts for the Penguins this year. When the team has played well as a unit, he has rewarded those efforts with crisp, efficient goaltending. The better the team plays in front of him, the more consistent Jarry performs between the pipes. There’s been a real symbiotic connection between the goalie and the other five men on the ice.

Of Jarry’s 14 wins, six have come via those shutouts. Of those shutouts, four have come when the Penguins have allowed 23 shots on goal or fewer, including Tuesday’s blanking of the Jets.

“We were blocking shots. Guys were getting back,” Jarry said. “When we are conscientious with the puck, we play a really good game. We are hard to get offense against. The guys did a great job defending in front of the net.”

Don’t let the shot totals tell the whole story. Head coach Mike Sullivan insists that when called upon to make tough, quiet saves that may not be of the spectacular variety, Jarry has been there to do exactly that — particularly on Tuesday.

“In the third period, when Winnipeg was pushing, they’re a good team. They’ve got some pretty dynamic offensive people,” Sullivan said. “I thought he made a couple of sneaky good saves. There were a couple of slot deflections that he gobbled up pretty well. I think when Tristan is at his best, he makes a lot of difficult saves look routine because he’s positionally sound, and the puck hits him.”

To that point, Jarry ranks ninth in goals saved above expected (11.0) and wins above replacement (1.84), according to Moneypuck.

For the way the Penguins are putting together wins of late, Jarry has had to be every bit that good.

And he’ll likely have to be the rest of the year if the Penguins are to return to the playoffs after missing out a season ago.

Listen: Tim Benz and Seth Rorabaugh discuss Tristan Jarry, Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins’ power play and NHL players in the Olympics.