Tristan Jarry has a very binary way of evaluating his work.
And considering his calling, he basically operates in a pass-fail realm.
“You want to win every game and stop all discs,” said the Pittsburgh Penguins goalkeeper on Monday when asked how he evaluates his performance. “When I’m on the network, I want to make a difference. I want to help the team as much as possible. Everyone is hard on themselves in that sense. ”
During Tuesday’s 3-1 home loss to Washington Capitals at the PPG Paints Arena, Jarry’s teammates did a little to make things difficult for him.
Jarry was bombed with 42 shots, stopping 39, and faced all the fury of one of the most dynamic offenses in the NHL during most of the competition. The problem was magnified by the Penguins scoring enough penalties to give the Capitals five chances of a power game, although the visitors could not score with the advantage of a man.
In contrast, the Penguins managed to generate just 27 kicks and hit 0 to 4 on their power-play opportunities – including a short streak of five against three – thanks in part to a handful of kicks that hit the iron early in the competition.
The second period in particular is what seemed to condemn the penguins.
During the interim period, they suffered four penalties – strikers Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin, as well as defenders PO Joseph and Mike Matheson were to blame – and were defeated by 18-5.
“It seemed that during the second period we were short of players,” said striker Teddy Blueger. “We killed one and a few shifts later, we took another. Therefore, it was difficult to generate momentum. They continued to play the attack, turn after turn, in the power game. So it was difficult for us to generate any offense for us or to sustain the pressure in that period.
“That’s when they really took control of the game and had a lot of fun. We never really recovered from that. ”
The Capitals scored in the first 4 minutes, 52 seconds of the second period, when ex-Penguins striker Conor Sheary hit a right-hand wrister, passing Jarry’s shoulder on the near side for his third goal of the season.
It became a 2-0 game at 11:31 am of the second, thanks to striker Jakub Vrana who fired a wrister from the right circle, passing Jarry’s gloved hand, again on the near side, for his fifth goal.
The uneven nature of the attack in favor of Washington was evident in the way the Penguins distributed their personnel during the second.
Penalty killers scored time with swollen short-handed ice time totals during the second, including Blueger (5:13), defender Cody Ceci (4:33), striker Brandon Tanev (4:26), defender John Marino (4: 15) and defender Marcus Pettersson (3:05).
Meanwhile, franchise centers Sidney Crosby (4:45) and Malkin (4:41) saw relatively little in terms of overall ice time in the second.
“Not everyone kills (penalties),” said Pettersson. “A lot of guys get out of the game a little bit when you have to defend yourself a lot.”
The Penguins did not offer much defense in Washington’s third goal, 1:09 in the third period. A sequence of passes between Capitals strikers Richard Panik and Lars Eller divided the Penguins’ zone and resulted in Eller’s second goal.
Washington’s elimination attempt was interrupted at 3:05 pm of the third period, when striker Zach Aston-Reese received a pass from Blueger and fired at goalkeeper Vitek Vanek for the third goal.
At that point, the damage suffered in the second period was too much to be overcome.
“We self-inflicted there,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “It’s tough. We took four penalties. Eight of the 20 minutes were in the penalty area. So, almost half the time, we’re killing penalties. It just gets the guys out of the game. It gets the guys out of the stream.
“We certainly don’t help each other with the amount of penalties we suffer.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Seth by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
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