PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – If you were expecting Pens General Manager Ron Hextall to come down on Tristan Jarry publicly or for him to say he need a change. You will be disappointed by what the former NHL goalie said about his number one on Wednesday.
"Tristan did a good job for us this year from the time Brian Burke and I came in mid-February through the end of the year," Hextall said. "We had very good goaltending from both guys."
At one point combined, the two seemed a top five goalie pairing in the regular season. Jarry was fourth in the league in wins, while Casey DeSmith won 11 of 17 starts with a .912 save percentage and a 2.54 goals against average.
"Obviously saw what happened in game 5," Hextall said of Jarry in the playoffs. "Game 6 wasn't the best but we wouldn't have been where we were without Tristan."
The postseason-Jarry had the worst numbers of any goalie to play every game. He had an .888 save percentage and 3.18 goals against average. If you dig down in the regular season numbers-the save percentage .909 (41st in the league) and the goals against average 2.75 (45th in the NHL).
"We all have to remember, Tristan's a young player," Hextall said. "He's going to learn from this and he will come back better in September."
"We all learn lessons in life. If you are going to be a goaltender in this league for a long time you are going to have your ups-and-downs as pretty much every guy does. You learn from it and get better."
"We are confident Tristan will get better."
