Penguins Notebook: Sullivan Says Media ‘Overthinking’ the Goalie Situation

MONTREAL — Ask a direct question, get a direct answer. Whether or not you go with Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan’s answer is entirely up to you. Some of you will. Some of you will file it with the same bemusement as the flat earth theories.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now posed “the” question to Sullivan on Sunday at Centre Bell following the Penguins’ 35-minute practice. Today, one primary story is bouncing around the Penguins universe, and it involves Sullivan’s choice of goalie for the Saturday game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Sullivan moved to tamp down the “goalie controversy” between Tristan Jarry and rookie Joel Blomqvist with a little levity and dismissal despite turning to goalie Joel Blomqvist for a second consecutive game and repeating his pattern from late last season when he left presumptive starting goalie Tristan Jarry on the bench.

“We tell Tristan to control what he can. He’s a good goalie. He’s a quality goalie,” said Sullivan. “I think you guys are making more of this than — you know, you guys are overthinking this as you always do. We need two goalies that can help us win. We have a lot of games coming up, and (Jarry) is going to play.”

OK, Sullivan got me.

He knew someone would ask, and despite a throng of Canadian media, that person was me. Blomqvist has been much better than expected. In fact, based on our scouting trips to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, he’s obliterating expectations. There’s no question the organization has been waiting for him to arrive, but the beginning of his second North American season is the earliest possible projection.

He’s not yet shown a weakness or soft spot. After an amazing save in practice Sunday, he even earned heavy otter taps from Alex Nedeljkovic.

Working extra hard during practice is the kind of effort that will earn him thousands of bonus points with Sullivan. The internal knock on Jarry has always been conditioning and taking things beyond the 60-minute games as intensely serious as the head coach might like. Before the Penguins made Jarry a full-time NHL player in 2019-20, he was made to wait in WBS while he matured, though his talent may have seemed ready for the big show.

In a rare moment of behind-the-scenes candor, Sullivan admitted the business aspect of the Penguins keeping Jarry on the final roster and demoting backup Casey DeSmith before the 2019-20 NHL season.

Jarry had a breakout that season and ultimately elbowed past the struggling and injured Matt Murray as the Penguins starting goalie.

And the circle of NHL life that allowed Murray to supplant Marc-Andre Fleury following the 2017 Stanley Cup championship, Jarry to supplant Murray, and now has Blomqvist presenting his plumage to do the same.

“We need two goalies that can help us win. We have a lot of games coming up, and (Jarry) is going to play,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to use two goalies through this first little while out of necessity just because of the condensed schedule.”

But what about when there’s not a compact schedule, and Alex Nedeljkovic is healthy? Oops, sorry, overthinking again.

Penguins French Connections

Penguins defense, er, defencemen de Pittsburgh Penguins Kris Letang is usually the most popular media figure in the locker room when the team visits the bleu blanc et rouge.

The French Canadian media had a new player to highlight on Sunday: Anthony Beauvillier.

Beauvillier has two goals this season and scored both against the Detroit Red Wings Thursday. However, there’s little question he has held up his end of the bargain after being given the spot beside Sidney Crosby.

“I think we did some good stuff in the preseason, so it was good to get rewarded (with the lineup spot), and we’ve just got to keep building on chemistry there and keep finding each other in tight and close to each other,” Beauvillier said Sunday. “(I) felt like might (I) have been a second late on a couple of pucks (Saturday) but it’s been good–we were building on something, and we want to keep that going forward.”

Sullivan had attached Beauvillier to Crosby for most of the time the team has been together since the opening of training camp. Drew O’Connor, last year’s first contestant to replace Jake Guentzel, following the Penguins trade with Carolina.

Of course, there’s something special about Montreal. It’s not just the hot dogs in the media area, which even Crosby is rumored to have delivered to the locker room before the game. There’s the nearly inexplicable, sometimes genteel, but usually simmering rivalry between the French-speaking hockey world focused in the Quebec province with Montreal as the capital city and the rest of Canada.

Players from Quebec are special in Montreal, each a hometown hero to serve as an example of the limitless possibilities of playing professional hockey.

“It’s very special. I think every time I come here, you just feel different. You feel more energized,” said Beauvillier. “And when these guys play in this building in particular, it’s so special and something I will never take for granted.”

Editor’s note: The headline was changed from “You’re Overthinking” to Media “Overthinking” to more accurately depict his Mike Sullivan’s comment.