The Penguins have some clarity on the Tristan Jarry injury and it isn’t great. He has a broken bone(s) in his foot. He is week to week.
#Penguins G Tristan Jarry is has a broken bone in his foot, per @colin_dunlap
— Bob Pompeani (@KDPomp) April 16, 2022
Mike Sullivan said pregame today Jarry is out "week-to-week."
If you are looking for a positive at least this kind of injury isn’t because he was overworked all season. This could happen to anyone!
Yeah, that isn’t much of a positive. The #1 reason the PEnguins were sent home packing early last year is because they got no goaltending in the playoffs. To Tristan Jarry’s credit he had an amazing bounce back regular season. He knew he would be on the microscope and played well enough to sniff a Vezina finalist discussion at a few points this year. He was a legit #1 and would head into the playoffs as such.
Things have potential to look like they did last year because it is now Casey DeSmith’s net. He hasn’t had a great year as a backup. The conversation surrounding the team was what if something happens to Jarry? I don’t think this was lost on the Penguins, but I think given their cap space and limited resources they decided to roll the dice on Jarry being available and went after Rickard Rakell instead. I can’t blame them. Although, sometimes a measured gamble doesn’t work out how you wanted it to.
Mike Sullivan has the potential to be in an interesting spot in round one. What if Casey DeSmith is playing like Tristan Jarry did last year? He absolutely refused to move to his backup in the postseason last year and ultimately that choice was a self-inflicted wound which led to the defeat. Would the backup have been any better against the Islanders? I think the appropriate retort would be he literally couldn’t have been worse. If DeSmith is laying an egg will Sullivan even contemplate putting Louis Domingue in? Let’s hope it doesn’t get to this point, but this is 100% a scenario that is in play right now, unfortunately.
Sullivan is going to have to give Domingue some NHL action in the coming weeks. At least two games in my opinion. You can’t have a guy buried in the AHL all year long not get a few starts when he is obviously going to be the backup.
The situation stinks. Jarry did everything he was supposed to do after having a horrible postseason last year. He deserved some redemption. Instead, the Penguins are going to have to rely on having the random goalie in the playoffs who goes on a run.
Thanks for reading!