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Jarry terrific in return to lineup in win over Senators |
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The Penguins closed out their three game stretch in successful fashion. They were able to take five out of six points against Anaheim and Ottawa (x2). Six is obviously better, but five is acceptable. The good news continues. They are starting to get healthy again.
Tristan Jarry made his return and he was outstanding. The team didn’t ease him in at all. He stopped 44 out of 45 shots. To say it was a successful return to action would be understating it.
To miss time injured and jump back into the fire like that is impressive. It is such a huge boost to have Jarry back in the fold. He’s had another strong regular season and when he’s capable of hitting this level it makes the team tough to beat. When you have your #1 goalie it gives you a little wiggle room for the skaters to have an off game. They can steal games for you. I don’t think last night falls in the stolen game category, the Penguins put up 44 shots of their own. There will come a time where they will need one stolen and the chances are a lot better with Jarry back. The team has two big divisional games coming up against New Jersey and Washington with Florida sandwiched in-between.
It was a top six kind of game. Jake Guentzel scored twice with Rickard Rakell and Jason Zucker adding one apiece. It almost has to be a top six game because Mike Sullivan isn’t deploying his fourth line all that much. Drew O’Connor and Jon Gruden were both under 7 minutes played with Danton Heinen getting a sliver over eight minutes. The team will start to get some healthy bodies back at forward and I would like to see Sullivan spread the wealth a little more. He has been in a tough spot because the Penguins desperately need points to stay in the race after the big losing streak. They also have to play the long game in how they manage minutes, at least in my opinion, so they aren’t gassed in April. To be fair to Sullivan Gruden finished with an xGF% of 3.05 in his five minutes. Hgard to blame him for managing his minutes.
It’s nice to see Jake Guentzel with three goals in his last three games. He has run cold at times and it has been noticeable because he so very rarely runs cold. It happens to everyone. It just seems to happen less often for him.
Sidney Crosby hasn’t looked like he has been in top gear recently. He has five points in his last three games. Still the same old Sid.
Last night was a great night for the Joseph family. It was the first time Pierre-Olivier and Mathieu lined up against one another at the NHL level. Things couldn’t have been scripted any better for battling brothers. Mathieu went to hit Pierre-Olivier and PO gave him the slip and then they both took minors for high sticking... on each other. Perfect brother moment
There aren’t a lot of situations where I think fighting makes sense in the NHL anymore. Last night was one of the few times it made a lot of sense. Mark Friedman squared off against Brady Tkachuk later in the third period with the Senators trailing. Any time you can take the other team’s best forward off the ice for five minutes while only losing a bottom pairing defenseman is a win.
Jeff Petry made his return to the lineup. So now the Penguins have one of their right side guys back. I thought Petry was starting to find his footing as a Penguin before the injury. If they can get anything close to what they intended when they made the trade for him it would be a pretty big boost to the lineup. It was a solid outing as he went CF 22 CA 14 with a 56.60 xGF% while adding an assist. It won’t be long until Kris Letang is back as well which can only help offensively and transition.
The Penguins will pick things up tomorrow at 2PM when they travel to Neward to take on the New Jersey Devils.
Thanks for reading!
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