The Pittsburgh Penguins are not the 2022-2024 Boston Bruins. They do not employ two Vezina Trophy-caliber netminders like Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.
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Their top-paid goalie, Tristan Jarry, plays in the AHL, while their top rookie, Joel Blomqvist, has a 3.46 goals-against average through six games in the NHL.
After starting the year on the IR, Alex Nedeljkovic is back and rotating starts with Blomqvist but hasn’t faired any better with a 3.94 GAA.
The Penguins have surrendered the most goals (48) as a team, surpassing all 32 teams, including the San Jose Sharks. Their league-worst goal differential is minus-18.
Heading into their Thursday night showdown with the Anaheim Ducks, Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan announced that Nedeljkovic would get the start. This is the fifth consecutive contest with a different goalie getting the nod.
The Penguins haven’t won a game since Oct. 16 against the Buffalo Sabres, when Blomqvist bailed out Jarry with a 26-save overtime win.
Since then, only Nedeljkovic has started back-to-back contests, losing to Winnipeg (Oct. 20) and Calgary (Oct. 22), in which the Penguins blew a lead in each game.
Last year, with the season on the line in the final month, Sullivan picked Nedeljkovic, who went on a hot streak, going 9-3-3 in his final 19 games from Mar. 3 to Apr. 17.
As Pittsburgh struggles to keep the puck out of its net, Sullivan has abandoned picking one starter and allowing that netminder to get into a rhythm.
Flipping-flopping every other game has not allowed Blomqvist to climatize to the league or Nedeljkovic to return to last season’s form.
Meanwhile, when Jarry returns to the NHL, where does he fit into the rotation with a salary of $5.3 million? Shouldn’t he get a shot at earning consecutive starts to build up some momentum?
No matter what’s going on with the rest of the team, Sullivan’s handling of goaltending this season hasn’t helped and probably has hindered his netminder’s performances.
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