The Penguins and St. Louis Blues don’t face off often, as they’re members of opposite conferences. Still, as members of the Expansion Six, the two franchises will remain forever linked.
But that doesn’t mean you’d expect them to be so generous to one another when they square off twice a year. The Penguins didn’t seem to get the memo, as they’ll be starting Tristan Jarry tonight unless something changes.
Yeah, that same Tristan Jarry who lost a spot on the big club a few months back and has been one of the worst goaltenders in hockey for a while now. Sure, Jarry has had his moments, and maybe that’ll be the case tonight. But with the Blues in playoff contention as the regular season winds down, Jarry starting in the net provides them the perfect golden opportunity.
St. Louis Blues can thank the Penguins for scheduling Tristan Jarry to start
Now, the clear downside here is that the Blues have been less-than-stellar against Jarry, and perhaps it’s why Penguins coach Mike Sullivan wants Jarry between the pipes. He’s faced the Blues seven times and boasts a 6-1-0 record, a shutout, a 1.85 GAA and an eye-popping 0.929 save percentage.
Yeah, that’s impressive for any goaltender, and since the Blues are still not the most consistent bunch at scoring, it looks like a bad opportunity, right? But I digress, simply because of how bad Jarry’s been this season, seemingly regardless of who he’s been facing.
So far, he’s sporting a meager 0.891 save percentage and a 3.15 GAA, neither of which are even close to outstanding numbers. Jarry also has an abysmal 0.435 quality starts percentage, and six of his 24 starts have been classified as ‘really bad starts.’ That said, now you see why this is a gift for the Blues.
No way the St. Louis Blues can mess this up despite recent struggles vs. Jarry
The Blues are an incredible 7-1-2 in their last 10 games and it puts them among the hottest teams in the NHL at the moment. Another 7-1-2 run would all but guarantee them a playoff spot, and it’s an unprecedented one when you account for where this team’s been at specific points of the season.
No, the Blues still aren’t anywhere near the NHL’s hottest team when it comes to playing with puck possession, so there’s always a chance they could still mess up this opportunity. But, given Jarry’s overall struggles this season and the fact the Penguins are the weakest team in the Metropolitan Division heading into this one, the Blues are winning tonight, barring a major meltdown.
If and when they take tonight’s contest, it’ll also let them keep pace with the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames, and it will make the fight for that final wild card spot at least one entertaining triple-threat match. It won’t be long until we see if the Blues manage to take advantage of this golden opportunity.