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Jarry, Guentzel, and the Penguins are going streaking |
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There are some very Penguins friendly streaks happening at the moment. In their first visit to UBS arena they shutout the Islanders who have now lost eight straight including four straight to open their new building. The Penguins are on a five game winning streak and have had some individual players doing impressive things.
The hottest Penguin at the moment is Tristan Jarry who picked up his third shutout in five games. Not only that he has only allowed two goals in the two non-shutout games. Playing at this level wasn’t really the expectation heading into this season. If he keeps it up, he might find himself in a Vezina conversation.
This is obviously good, but it is historically good
Jarry isn’t the only one on a streak. Jake Guentzel has a new career high. He has points in eight straight games. I’m not really big on home/away splits for analysis, but Guentzel has also had a point in every road game this year. The Penguins have had nine road games so far and Guentzel producing in all of them is really good.
Kasperi Kapanen scored the lone goal on the evening using his wrist shot to beat Sorokin.
It was nice to see Sidney Crosby making a nice pass in transition and Kapanen’s curl and drag to get a clean shot was impressive as well.
The 1-0 score made the game look closer than it was. Pittsburgh out-attempted the Islanders 60-38 at 5v5 on the evening.
There was one negative unexpected issue which reared its head before the game. Bryan Rust was a late surprise scratch for a lower body injury. There isn’t much information about it at the moment. Rust had just scored his first goal of the year and was poised to reap the benefits of shooting percentage regression.
As for the rest of the team they will face the Montreal Canadiens. It will be the Penguins second consecituve week on Hockey Night in Canada. Last week they were able to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs. Tonight they’ll have a 5-15-2 Montreal team. If you aren’t going to start Casey DeSmith in this one then I’m not sure when you will. I’m guessing they will.
Speaking of struggling Penguins goaltenders Matt Murray’s tenure with the Ottawa Senators is rocky to say the least.
He was amazing in both Cup runs for the Penguins. He had a really strong 2018-19 campaign with a .919 save percentage. However, something is broken with his play because including this year he has three straight years below .900. It isn’t like the Senators are a great team, but I think the problem is overwhelming on Murray’s end. I don’t know what happened to him, but he’s flirting with being out of the league riding a bus in the AHL or being bought out. The buyout isn’t really that bad, but Eugene Melnyk is a known cheapskate who I don’t think would want to pay somebody to not be there.
Thanks for reading!
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