After three consecutive losses the Penguins have strung together two impressive victorites. After dominating the Canadiens with a barage of goals the Penguins turned defensive and shutout one of the better teams in the league last night with a 2-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Tristan Jarry made 26 saves to earn back-to-back shutouts on the road trip. He is now up to a .927 all situations save percentage this year. His start to the season could not be going better. He is also chasing down his own shutout record
Tristan Jarry previously set the Penguins' franchise shutout streak record Nov. 29 - Dec. 10 2019, going 177:15 without allowing a goal.
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) November 21, 2021
He's currently at 151:06 without a goal after posting shutouts in Montreal and Toronto.
He's just 26:09 away from tying his own record.
Things couldn’t be going better for Jarry to start the year. Many, including myself, were very skeptical of the Penguins bringing back the same goaltending tandem. They aren’t out of the woods yet because it is a long season. Speaking of which the Penguins are running the risk of burning their starting goaltender out. Jarry has started 14 out of 17 games this year. He’s been playing great and the team needs standings points so they don’t fall too far back. Casey DeSmith hasn’t done his part in his three starts going .856 in those starts. DeSmith is a .913 career goaltender so at some point they’ll have to give him more work or find someone else. The current pace for Jarry is concerning. He is on pace to start 67 games this year. A goalie hasn’t started that many games since 2017-18 when Cam Talbot did it for Edmonton. Personally, I’d keep a goaltender to about 55 starts at a maximum to avoid injuries and burnout.
Late in the game Jarry and the penalty killers had to navigate a 5v3 situation. They did so successfully. Something I’ll never understand is when teams with an amazing shooter don’t just run the Phil Curlâ„¢ over and over again. Even the Penguins didn’t utilize it as much as they should have. You either get a great shot w/ great shooter skating into scoring area or you force D triangle to expand and have whatever east west lane you want. With Auston Matthews I would just have him loop up to the blue line and back down again and repeat as many times as necessary. The other option would be to pass it back and forth behind the net forcing everybody to look behind including the goalie. The way most teams operate their 5v3’s is very unimaginative.
The Penguins do currently have the #1 penalty killing unit in the league at 89.1%. It is early in the year, but first is first. Are they doing anything wildly different? Personally, I think it is a situation where their goaltender is just making more saves. Looking back at last year the penalty kill was 27th overall at 77.4%. Their penalty killing save percentage was 28th overall at .837. This year so far they’re at 4th overall at .909. Last year they had a xGA/60 of 5.93. This year it is 6.16. The goalie is playing better and that is a good thing.
Jake Guentzel scored in his fourth consecutive game. He now has seven goals on the year and is on pace for 36 on the season. His shooting percentage is up to 13.4% after last night. His career shooting percentage is 16.0 which means he is an elite finisher in this league and every team would be lucky to have someone like him. Only Leon Draisaitl (17.4), Brayden Point (17.3), Steven Stamkos (17.02), Brad Marchand (16.20), and Mikko Rantanen (16.17) are active players who have better career marks than Guentzel.
Up next is a trip out west to take on the first place Winnipeg Jets on Monday night.
Thanks for reading!