Tristan Jarry's approach to the 2019-20 season can be distilled to a single sentence.
"My mindset is just to get better every day," he said.
Yeah, well, good luck with that. Let us know when you find a way to improve on perfection.
That will be Jarry's challenge in his next start, because he's stopped everything thrown at him during the past two, including a 33-save effort during the Penguins' 2-0 victory against the Coyotes Friday night at PPG Paints Arena.
"Jarry had a huge night for us," Justin Schultz said.
His second in 48 hours, actually. Jarry had rejected 28 shots during a 3-0 victory Wednesday against the Blues who, aside from winning a Stanley Cup in June and sitting atop the Western Conference today, really haven't accomplished much in 2019.
Both of those victories came at home where, truth be told, Jarry actually isn't unbeatable. He's awfully close to it, though. Not only is he 6-1 at PPG Paints Arena this season, but Jarry has turned aside 188 of the 195 shots he's faced during those seven appearances.
"I love playing here," Jarry said. "It's awesome. The fans have great support all the time. It's fun to go out there every period."
It should be, considering how well he's done in almost all of them.
Mike Sullivan likes to split the starts when the Penguins play on consecutive days, so Matt Murray figures to be in goal when the Penguins visit Detroit Saturday at 7:08 p.m. But while Murray entered the season as the Penguins' undisputed No. 1 goaltender -- and probably still holds down the top spot on their depth chart -- Sullivan acknowledged that Jarry's play this season has forced the coaching staff to reconsider the division of labor for its goaltenders.
He offered no details, but the bottom line is that Jarry has earned more work than Murray's backup -- whether it was him or Casey DeSmith -- was penciled in for as recently as a few weeks ago, let alone in early October.
"He's played extremely well," Sullivan said. "We're trying to make decisions to win games in the short run, but also trying to have the big picture in mind. Tristan, his last handful of starts, we feel as though he's been really good. He's deserving of some of the starts we've given him. That's why we chose to go with him tonight."
Sullivan's rationale was rewarded when Jarry made a number of quality stops against the Coyotes, none better than when he got his left skate on a Clayton Keller rebound during a power play in the third period.
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