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Mike Sullivan Stresses Consistency from Penguins Goalies

Originally posted on Pittsburgh Penguins on SI
By Nick Horwat | Last updated Jan 6, 2024 5:39 PM ET

PITTSBURGH - The current goaltending duo of Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic has been one of the biggest factors in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ early-season success.

Despite some of the best team goaltending numbers in the NHL, the Penguins and their goalies still battled consistency issues on occasion, and that has shown to bite them already.

Jarry and Nedeljkovic have been clutch in making crucial saves, but they also have a tendency to allow a few too many goals in one sitting.

In two of his last four starts, Jarry has been pulled early thanks to allowing multiple early goals.

When the Penguins lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-0, Jarry allowed the first four goals before getting yanked.

Jarry allowed the first three tallies in the 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals before getting pulled in the first period for Nedeljkovic.

Even in the Penguins’ most recent win, Nedeljkovic allowed some leaky goals forcing the final score to read 6-5 against the Boston Bruins.

Head coach Mike Sullivan said that finding consistency and a higher level of dependability is important.

Coach Sullivan: "We are what we repeatedly do, we are creatures of habit... You can't just turn on and turn off your compete level. We're trying to build habits every single day that are going to translate to the game."

More from coach ahead of tonight's game vs. the Sabres ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/1EYq3K9osb
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 6, 2024

“I think it’s important for any player,” Sullivan said. “The consistency, knowing what you’re going to get each and every night I think is important.”

In 25 games played this season, Jarry holds an 11-11-2 record with a .912 save percentage and 2.58 goals against average.

Nedeljkovic has posted a 7-3-2 record with a .917 save percentage and 2.62 goals against average.

Aside from the records, Jarry and Nedeljkovic are having pretty similar seasons, and the Penguins have a far better situation than they did a year ago.

“Jars for the most part has been a pretty consistent goaltender for us,” Sullivan said. “Both Jars and Ned have done a decent job there.”

Regardless of the numbers or the records, the Penguins need to mitigate the amount of games their netminders bleed goals like they’ve done a bit more recently.

The Penguins want to see consistency from everyone in the lineup and the goalies are no different.

“That’s a word we’d all like to be associated with.”

In total, the Penguins have given up 101 goals on the season, which is tied for seventh in the NHL, a solid spot, but a dip from where they were.