In the East Division temporarily reconfigured and sponsored by the NHL corporation, there are a handful of teams still employing a tough, physical and forceful element in their games.
The New York Islanders are one of those teams.
The Pittsburgh Penguins do not.
Designed by former general manager Jim Rutherford and maintained until now by his successor, Ron Hextall, the Penguins are still primarily focused on using speed and skill to defeat the opponent.
“The important thing is that we understand the type of game we should be playing,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “We have to play with our identity. This is the conversation we have with our players, regardless of who our opponent is. It doesn’t make sense to be caught playing someone else’s game. We have to play our game and dictate the terms out there. ”
Of course, you can harbor any identity you want when your goalkeeper plays the way Tristan Jarry has been doing lately.
On Thursday, Jarry made 31 saves in 32 shots and led the Penguins to a 4-1 win over the Islanders at the PPG Paints Arena.
He arrived five minutes after registering his first shutout of the season and continued a series of strong moves last week.
In his last three games, Jarry stopped 98 of 105 shots, which equals a save percentage of 0.933.
In contrast, in his first seven games of the season, he was only able to deny 150 of the 175 shots he faced, leading to an ugly save percentage of 0.857.
For Jarry, the key to this improvement was simple.
“Just working on it in practice and making sure my habits are good, I think that’s where it comes from,” said Jarry in a videoconference. “It’s working hard in practice and working hard with (goalkeeper coach Mike Buckley) and the coaching staff. This helped to organize my practice habits and translated into my game. ”
Another thing that translated this game well for the Penguins: line changes. Specifically, the right wing grooves on the top two lines. Kasperi Kapanen was moved to the top row while Bryan Rust jumped to the second row.
These changes led to three Penguins’ goals.
The Penguins scored the first goal of the game 4 minutes, 15 seconds after Kapanen’s regular time stole a puck in New York’s left circle and quickly hit a wrister in the cage while falling. Penguins striker Sidney Crosby was skating over the groove and had the puck deflected from his stick, passing goalkeeper Semyon Varlamov’s blocker on the side to his sixth goal of the season.
It became a 2-0 game at the end of the second period, at the 18:01 mark. A writer from the left circle of the Islanders by Penguins defender Mike Matheson was denied by Varlamov, but a rebound deflected to the right of the area, where Penguins striker Teddy Blueger cleared the trash for his third goal.
An insurance target was added at 9:11 am of the third period. Behind the Islanders’ net, Rust made a pass to Penguins striker Jason Zucker, who fired a wrister for his fourth goal.
A goal by Islanders striker Brock Nelson – his fourth of the season – at 15:39 from the third, broke the closing offer.
Rust scored his sixth goal in an empty net, closing the scoring at 16:54.
“This is a good building block game for us,” said Zucker. “We need to continue to improve from now on.”
Jarry seems to be already doing this.
“He’s really making progress,” said Sullivan. “He looks much more comfortable in the crease. He’s challenging the sniper. He’s tracking the disk through traffic. His rebound control has been improved.
“When your goalkeeper is making defenses for your team, it has a positive psychological impact on the group in front of you. Tristan is doing this for us now. ”
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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