The Mike Sullivan-Tristan Jarry conundrum | Penguins Perspectives
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - In the City of Pittsburgh there is no more popular athlete than the backup quarterback or the backup goalie.
On the flip side, there is no less popular personality than the head coach.
The former is a beacon of hope and possibility. The unknown opens up a world of potential - the current guy is struggling so how could the other guy be worse, right?
That latter, well his message has gone stale. He's too stubborn. He can't adjust. You've undoubtedly heard or said these words.
Now, this is in no way a blind defense or a condemnation of either of the two people you're about to read about: Tristan Jarry and Mike Sullivan.
Of course, the Penguins bounced back well from an opening night throttling by the New York Rangers with a solid 6-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. A quick turnaround and no time to dwell on a tough loss was certainly just what the doctor ordered.
We do, however, have to keep the focus on what led to the Penguins being booed off of their own ice in the first game of the season.
First and foremost, keep in mind, that the Rangers are bonafide, true Stanley Cup contenders. That's not just a good hockey team, that's a great one. Of 32 NHL teams, they're probably in the top five, if not the top three.
The Penguins, much to our dismay, are no longer that.
But are they that bad?
I'd say no.
Let's begin with the coach because that's where everyone wants to start. Mike Sullivan has been the Penguins bench boss since December 2015 and in that near-decade run, the successes are well-documented. Two Stanley Cups saved the legacies of the Penguins' big three, and own the most wins of any Penguins coach in franchise history.
Does that give him a pass for this team's failings over the past few years? Absolutely not.
If there's one big change he needs to make it's to throw the team's puck-side overload defensive zone structure in the trash. Whether it's a lack of skill or a lack of will, the Penguins simply cannot play that system anymore. It's led to several goals against, disarray in the defensive zone, and extended zone time for the opposition.
Switching to a simple, box-and-one zone defense should better serve the roster he has at his disposal.
He's clearly changed the Penguins' offensive attack going into the season focusing more on puck possession behind the net in order to draw defenders low and open up the critical middle of the ice rather than unrelenting forechecking and speed.
Now, onto the guy between the pipes.
The Penguins came into their home opener with plenty of questions surrounding them, chief among them was whether or not their $5 million starting goalie could rebound from losing his job down the stretch of last season.
Through just one game, it appears no. Of course, one game does not a season make, but Tristan Jarry has not inspired confidence going back to March of last season.
On March 14, Jarry recorded a .906 save percentage against the lowly San Jose Sharks. Since then, in six appearances, he has not been able to crack a .900 save percentage - putting up .739, .868, .800, .800, .857, and .850, respectively.
That's not to say rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist suddenly usurped Jarry as the starter, a .906 save percentage is basically the league average.
The same goes for Alex Nedeljkovic. His starts down the stretch, when he succeeded Jarry, weren't much better, the Penguins just suddenly found their scoring touch again and were able to afford the chance to give up some untimely goals.
In fact, in Nedeljkovic's last five starts, he only exceeded a .900 save percentage one time.
So you may be asking, what does one have to do with the other?
It's this - it does not matter what system you run, when you can't get a save, you're cooked.
As the great Jeff Marek likes to say, "When you have a goalie, goaltending is 70 percent of the game, when you don't, it's 100 percent."
Mike Sullivan may have overstayed his welcome, and maybe his message is stale, but at the end of the day, through two games, it's clear some (but not enough) adjustments have been made to better reflect the roster he has at his disposal, but if the Penguins can't figure out their goaltending situation…it might not matter at all.