Penguins not only team taking advantage of dual goaltenders
Tristan Jarry’s participation in the All-Star Game event this weekend was no small undertaking when you weigh it against the context of the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise.
After all, he’s only the third goaltender in franchise history to be selected for the event.
Michel Dion (1982) and Marc-Andre Fleury (2011 and ’15) preceded Jarry.
Beyond that? Nada.
The two goaltenders to win the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons as starters, Tom Barrasso and Matt Murray, never have received this recognitions. Ditto fan favorites such as Les Binkley and Johan Hedberg.
And certainly the likes of Cam Newton, Jim Rutherford, Michel Plasse, Gord Laxton, Denis Herron (all three times he played for the team), Greg Millen, Roberto Romano, Gilles Meloche, Ken Wregget, Jean-Sebastien Aubin or Jean-Sebastien Caron only ever saw an All-Star Game by watching it on television.
Over 50 years and only three All-Star goaltenders.
So what Jarry has accomplished this season is a big deal.
Yet, when the playoffs open in April, he might not be starting.
Through 50 games, Jarry and Murray have split action almost evenly with Jarry getting 23 starts while Murray has 27.
Even as unexpected as Jarry’s success might be — he was shopped around by management this offseason — it’s not an accident.
“When you look at how the league has gone, there’s not a lot of guys that go wire to wire in goal,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “There’s a lot of teams that are using two goaltenders. And I think it’s out of necessity based on the way the game is being played, the schedule. There’s a lot teams that have done it. We’ve done it in the last few seasons. Since I’ve been here, we’ve done it. We’ve used to guys. If you have the capability to do it and you have quality guys, then it can be a competitive advantage for your team.”
Look no further than last season’s Stanley Cup Final for evidence of that.
The champion St. Louis Blues had Jake Allen appear in 46 regular-season games, and Jordan Binnington played in 32 games. Reserve Chad Johnson also played in 10 games.
Their opponent in the final had starter Tuuka Rask play in 46 games, and backup Jaroslav Halak appeared in 40 games.
The Penguins are no strangers to this division of labor. They did it in their most recent Stanley Cup-winning season of 2016-17.
During that campaign, Murray played in 49 games, and Fleury appeared in 38 games.
This season, the Penguins have been one of 17 teams that have had two goaltenders play at least 20 games.
Arizona Coyotes — Darcy Kuemper 25 / Antti Raanta 22
Boston Bruins — Tuukka Rask 28 / Jaroslav Halak 24
Carolina Hurricanes — Petr Mrazek 32 / James Reimer 20
Chicago Blackhawks — Robin Lehner 29 / Corey Crawford 25
Columbus Blue Jackets — Joonas Korpisalo 32 / Elvis Merzlikins 21
Colorado Avalanche - Philip Grubauer 29 / Pavel Francouz 20
Dallas Stars — Ben Bishop 32 / Anton Khudobin 20
Detroit Red Wings — Jonathan Bernier 28 / Jimmy Howard 23
Edmonton Oilers — Ville Koskinen 27 / Mike Smith 26
Minnesota Wild — Alex Stalock 25 / Devan Dubnyk 24
Nashville Predators — Pekka Rinne 29 / Jusse Saros 23
New York Islanders — Semyon Varlamov 31 / Thomas Greiss 23
New York Rangers — Henrik Lundqvist 25 / Alexandar Georgiev 23
Ottawa Senators — Craig Anderson 22 / Anders Nilsson 20
Philadelphia Flyers — Carter Hart 32 / Brian Elliott 24
Penguins — Matt Murray 27 / Tristan Jarry 25
San Jose Sharks — Martin Jones 32 / Aaron Dell 22
How the Penguins split their final 32 games of the season is anyone’s guess. They certainly won’t lack options.
“We’re fortunate to have two quality goaltenders like we have, two guys that we think give us a chance to win each and every night,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to try to make the best decisions for the team that can help us win games. One of the benefits is that their workloads are very reasonable. We think that’s a huge benefit to our team, especially when you look at the schedule that we’re going through right now where the games are so condensed.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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