Inside the Jarry Comeback; An Audition, Outside Help, & the Personal Side (a PHN Exclusive)

Last week was not a banner week for Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry. His four-game unbeaten streak crashed with a mighty thud as the team wilted in front of him. He was pulled in successive games and left to watch blowout losses from the bench, wearing a baseball hat instead of a goalie mask.

Sullivan giving Jarry the start Sunday was itself noteworthy as the organization is obviously giving Jarry a chance to not only to redeem his season but also to reclaim the No. 1 goaltender spot. Goalie partner Alex Nedeljkovic played well in relief both times last week but has not started since beating Columbus on March 21.

In fact, Jarry made more saves in the first period Sunday (16) than he made in his previous two starts combined (11). Jarry rebounded from those disastrous games with a 31-save shutout and 1-0 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators at PPG Paints Arena.

“I think I played a couple of good games in a row, and then obviously, the last two, I think I would like to have back,” said Jarry Sunday night. “Obviously, being pulled is never easy, but I think just being able to play today and have the game I did, I think that shows resiliency and (I just want) to keep going with that.”

In a season overflowing with tribulations, last Tuesday against Tampa Bay was Jarry’s second-worst start (allowing four goals on seven shots), behind only his Oct. 16 start against Buffalo in which he allowed three goals on five shots. Thursday wasn’t much better as he stopped only eight of 12.

Jarry’s stats remain pedestrian with an .892 save percentage and a 13-11-5 record. But stats aren’t what will determine what comes next.

The lowlights of his season have been many, including an uncanny run of giving up goals on the first shot and near certainty of giving up at least one goal within the first five shots he faced. Except for being recalled during the Four Nations tournament in mid-February, which was a paper move so the team could re-assign goalie Joel Blomqvist to continue playing games, Jarry remained in his AHL exile with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

But after recalling Jarry on March 3, he sat for a few games, backing up Nedeljkovic before the Penguins gave Jarry a primetime audition. And the goalie understands its importance.

“You never know. I think it was you who said this was another audition,” Jarry said to Pittsburgh Hockey Now. “It’s obviously another audition for me. Every time I get to play a game, to be the goalie of record, that’s an audition for me to put another tool in my bag or (take) another step forward,” Jarry said. “I think that’s all I want to do, is be able to show them that I’m that goalie that I was, and that I am.”

PHN spoke at some length with Jarry during the Penguins’ recent seven-day road trip through Florida, Tampa Bay, and Buffalo. At a chilly practice rink outside Tampa, Jarry approached barefoot, wearing workout shorts and a t-shirt. In contrast, I wore a sweater and a jacket to avoid the abnormally cold temps at TGH Iceplex in Brandon, Florida.

The interview was prearranged and agreed to by Jarry with the understanding we would ask some of the difficult questions about his season and the recent run, which could arguably be termed a comeback as he gets a second chance at sticking with the Penguins and in the NHL.

PHN rescheduled flights to attend the previously unscheduled Wednesday practice in order to speak with Jarry. We shook hands, and it began.

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Some of Jarry’s delivered answers were the stock answers he previously used in media scrums following practices or the recent run of victories. Perhaps there’s not much more to say on those topics, but in the process of the conversation and pushing for a little more, the reason for the stock answers also became clear.

Not dwelling upon the darker possibilities or “what ifs” and focusing on the positive opportunity is as important as covering the five-hole on a lateral slide.

He just can’t and shouldn’t let his mind wander to the potential negatives.

Sure, the Penguins’ matador-like defensive performances played a role in Jarry’s fall, but Nedelkovic fought through the situation. Eventually, Nedeljkovic took the net from Jarry, who hit rock bottom on Jan. 15 when the team summoned him to inform they’d placed him on waivers following his sixth straight regulation or shootout loss (0-4-2).

The following day, Jarry was re-assigned to the WBS Penguins, where he hasn’t played since rising up the ranks in 2019.

We also learned a bit more about the process and the situation he faced after being unceremoniously re-assigned on Jan. 16.

“I don’t think you ever expect that kind of thing to happen. And obviously, when you’re nonwaiver eligible- it happened quite a bit (early) in my career. Going up and down, but not having waivers going down, I’d play a couple of games then go back, and vice versa,” Jarry said at the outset of our conversation. “And I think just this time around, you get put on waivers, you don’t really know what’s going to happen.

“So I think (the important part) was just going down there with the same mindset. I wanted to improve, I wanted to get better, and I wanted to be a better goalie. So I think just going down there, not changing those expectations, just making sure that I have that same mindset and going down there with the same approach (was important).”

As part of Jarry’s career rehab, he leaned on his positional coaches, but also his mental coach, much like Marc-Andre Fleury did when he, too, revived his Penguins career following some disastrous playoff appearances in 2012 and 2013.

” You reach out to those people a little bit more that you already have. Everyone has that in the NHL; you have your physio, your psychologist, all those types of people,” Jarry said. “So, you obviously reach out to them a little bit more in rough times to help you get through it. And I think that was a big help for me.”

It is certainly not easy for any veteran player on a multi-year contract to find themselves riding buses in the AHL and living in a hotel room in a minor league town. Still, everyone PHN spoke to about the situation said Jarry embraced the on-ice aspect.

However, a personal matter at home in Pittsburgh complicated an already difficult situation: His wife is pregnant.

“It’s obviously never easy to be away from your family or living in a hotel. So my wife’s been pregnant through the whole thing, and having to deal with (the situation), she’s been a real trooper. She’s been very supportive. She’s been awesome through the whole way,” Jarry admitted. “I think that the toughest part was just being away from her, being away from your support system, and just kind of living in a hotel and having to do it on your own. So I think that was the toughest part. On days off, I would go home to see her and to be able to reconnect with her … it’s worth every second of being able to do that, be with your support system, and be with the person you care about most. I think that that helps a lot.”

Jarry confessed to putting a lot of miles on his car, getting back and forth from Wilkes-Barre to Pittsburgh on off days and taking every chance to get home and spend “even a few hours” with her.

The personal side to his comeback has been the backbone of his opportunity. Talent has never been in question, but the simple matters of stopping pucks and being mentally ready for certain situations (such as early scoring chances) had obviously gone awry.

As Penguins fans learned on Sunday, there’s some talent in WBS, and the group has formed a bond. They’re a young, energetic bunch, and Jarry dropped into the middle of it all.

“They’re great. They enjoy every second of it, and I think that really helped me a lot. Their outlook on practice and the way that they work, I think it really helped me,” Jarry told us. “It didn’t really give me time to think about the circumstance that I was in and think about where I was. It was just, ‘I’m down here, and it’s time to get to work.’ And they pushed me just as much as I pushed them. And I think it was a great atmosphere down there.”

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Jarry’s first start after the recall was March 9. One might think a goalie would be nervous or unsure, and you’d be correct. Jarry was also excited. He seized the opportunity and backstopped four consecutive wins, including a couple of those wins in which captain Sidney Crosby termed the team’s performance as “just OK.”

Jarry was the difference in those games, and that’s really when Jarry’s season began again. Getting that first game and the nerves out of the way seemed much easier than expected.

The fan support in the first game as several “Jarry, Jarry!” chants broke out helped quite a bit, too.

“I think it’s just excitement. It’s like playing your first-ever NHL game all over again. I don’t think you’ll ever lose that feeling of being able to step on the ice and have everyone in the building kind of stand up and cheer,” Jarry said with a smile. “It’s it’s something that you can’t explain, like it’s a different feeling. You can’t get that from anything else.”

And so the goaltender from Surrey, BC, on the outskirts of Vancouver, went on a small tear, stopping 120 of 129 shots in a four-game winning streak (a .930 save percentage). He was also very good in a 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders on March 18, which ended his streak, stopping 34 of 37.

The loss to the Islanders began another four-game skid (0-3-1) before his bounce-back performance on Sunday.

The organization is giving him the leeway to reclaim his former spot atop the depth chart. There are plenty of reasons the organization is giving him another real chance, from Blomqvist’s struggles to Jarry’s contract, which has three more years remaining with an expensive $5.375 million cap hit. He was also unclaimed as he passed through waivers, and the team reportedly had no takers for a trade last summer, or at least none who offered deals that made sense.

A Jarry buyout this summer would be possible and affordable, given the coming salary cap spike and the Penguins’ enormous cap space. So, it’s time to sink or swim as the team undergoes changes all around.

“I obviously want to be here. I’ve been here my whole career, and it’s where I plan on finishing my career, hopefully,” Jarry said after his Sunday shutout. “So that’s obviously something that I want to do, and I’ve loved every minute putting the Pittsburgh Penguin’s jersey on, and I hope I get to do it for a lot longer.”

Before the situation reaches more drastic measures, Jarry is fighting his way back. It hasn’t been smooth, but neither has the team in front of him.

As for public perception or misconceptions about him or the process with the team, Jarry is leaving that to you and me to worry about. He’s got enough on his plate. His audition continues with his future in the balance.

“You want to win them all, but I think (my goal is to) just keep growing and keep doing what we’ve been doing here,” said Jarry on Sunday. “I think we want to grow every game, and we want to keep continuing what we started and just keep going, honestly.”

PHN is also making the full audio interview available on our podcast platforms.