One of the most important factors heading into the Stanley Cup Playoffs is the choice a team makes with their goaltending. This choice can be made in the offseason, during the season, and right before the playoffs begin. This year the Penguins chose to go forward with Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry.

Tristan Jarry was playing like one of the best goaltenders in the league this year. His caliber of play resulted in being nominated to the Metropolitan Division team in the NHL’s all-star game. Jarry’s play was needed. Matt Murray wasn’t very good to start the year. Something that has become a regular occurrence. Last year Murray started the year poorly, but ramped it up significantly after returning from injury around the holiday season. One could argue his level of play is what enabled the Penguins to make the post season. Murray played the first month and a half as an .877 goaltender before being shut down with a lower body injury. When he returned in mid-December he played the rest of the year as a .930 goalie. A tremendous turnaround. There was optimism heading into this year that the injury was the reason for Murray’s substandard play and he would be consistently good entering 2019-20. Murray was underwhelming to start the year and Tristan Jarry earned the opportunity to be the Penguins go to starter.

Tristan Jarry took over on the back of his stellar play. On January 7th when he was announced as a member of the all-star team he had a .935 save percentage in all-situations in 20 games played. He was literally among the league’s best players. The Penguins decision about what goaltender to use as their number one was looking pretty easy, until it wasn’t. After being recognized as one of the best players in the league this year Jarry’s caliber of play went down. The 13 games after the all-star announcement Jarry was a .900 goalie. No, I’m not saying the announcement is the reason. That is dumb. I am just highlighting the caliber of play he was recognized for didn’t continue. The Penguins goaltender choices got harder again.

While Jarry was a .935 goaltender Murray was an .896 goalie. While Jarry was a .900 goalie Murray was only .903. Murray hasn’t been good this year at any point. Yet, it appears he will get the net if and when the playoffs start.

Matt Murray is likely to be the starting goalie for the Penguins when the Stanley Cup Qualifiers begin, according to a report.https://t.co/DpGdhYLWST

— NHL.com (@NHLdotcom) June 19, 2020

"We have extremely high expectations for Matt," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Tuesday. "He has shown the ability to play at his very best when the stakes are at their highest, and I can't think of a better characteristic to have for an athlete."

You could see [Matt] playing at a more consistent level in the second half of the season," Sullivan said. "We really liked the way he was trending. He certainly has shown, in my time with him, that he's a better goaltender in the second half of the season and into the [Stanley Cup Playoffs]. His track record speaks for itself. He's a good goaltender in this league."

What should the Penguins do? I don’t have a great answer for this. We are in unprecedented times. We’ve had Olympic breaks mid-season before, but we’ve never had a half-year hiatus in the middle of a season. Should we even care about what the goalies did earlier in the year? I’m leaning towards no. I don’t think we can lean on what happened because it might as well be a different season. I will say this, the last two years Murray has been bad out of the gate (and stayed bad this year) regardless of Mike Sullivan’s quote from above says. There should be some concern about a cold start to the playoffs and Murray’s trend of not “being ready” to go.

On the flip side we really don’t know anything about Tristan Jarry. His career sample in the NHL is miniscule and I don’t think it tells us anything. Pittsburgh is between a rock and a hard place with this decision. You have a goalie who was a stud in two Stanley Cup runs, but underwhelming since and a goalie who was on fire for half the year and then saw a big drop off. I can totally understand the Penguins wanting to go with the guy they know versus the guy they are still learning about. It doesn’t mean it will be the right, but you’re a liar if you say you know what the right call is. There is no road map for this.

The best thing the Penguins can do is monitor both goalies during practice and see who consistently performs day after day. I’m not sure what else they can do. The good news is their opponent is starting a .909 goalie so it isn’t as if they are going up against a huge mismatch.

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