When Tristan Jarry limped into the media availability room following his only postseason appearance in Pittsburgh’s Game 7 overtime loss against the New York Rangers, he had a bunch of ice wrapped around his injured foot.
And when the Penguins netminder returned to his offseason home in Sherwood Park, Alberta, he couldn’t put a skate back on for about a month.
“I basically played with a broken foot,” Jarry said. “I was only three weeks into my rehab at that point when I got to play. So it really didn’t heal in that time.”
With backup goaltender Casey DeSmith Also sidelined after undergoing core muscle surgery, Jarry gutted it out through the pain in that do-or-die game to try and give his team a chance.
If the Penguins had advanced, Jarry would have taken some more time off, and then hopefully played again midway through the Second Round, with the target being around Game 3 or 4.
“There’s something inside you that just doesn’t feel right when you’re not able to help the team and you have to sit there and watch,” Jarry said. “So it’s always tough having to watch from the sidelines, and especially with what happened, I wanted to go out there, I wanted to play.”
Instead, after the Penguins were eliminated, Jarry turned his focus onto getting healthy, especially since his foot didn’t heal as quickly as expected.
“It was something that I had to take really good care of, do a lot of treatment on, a lot of therapy,” he said. “I think it’ll help me this year, and make me stronger.”
Once Jarry could start skating again, he had to adjust around the injury, since the ankle/foot are such a big part of a goalie’s mechanics. He needed to watch how he went into his posts for the first little bit, and make sure it was strong enough to a) get up and down on that side and b) push off hard enough.
Eventually, Jarry felt back to 100%, and really tried to take advantage of the remaining offseason before returning to Pittsburgh.
He skated with Flyers goaltender Carter Hart for the fourth year in a row, with the two of them pushing each other hard. Their workouts were run by their offseason coach Dustin Schwartz, who was Jarry’s goalie coach during his junior days with the Edmonton Oil Kings, and is now with the Edmonton Oilers.
“I’m always working on things that I need to improve on, and use the summer to work on the bigger things that the grind of a season doesn’t always allow for,” Jarry said. “A big part of my overall development is learning when to improve on the small versus the big things. I really used the offseason to work on the bigger things.”
Both of Jarry’s first two seasons as the Penguins starter haven’t ended the way anyone would have liked. It was amazing to watch how he rebounded from the 2021 playoffs, putting together an All-Star season that was tremendous not just from a numbers perspective, but from his approach as well.
Head coach Mike Sullivan described it best when he said Jarry had a certain look in his eye where he was determined to prove people wrong and show that he’s a legit No. 1 goaltender in this league, which is exactly what he did. But getting hurt the way he did kept Jarry from being the type of difference-maker he wanted to be in the 2022 playoffs.
However, both Sullivan and general manager Ron Hextall are pleased with how Jarry, 27, has handled the disappointment of last season.
“He’s kind of getting to that age where he’s really growing up in terms of being an athlete and maturing,” Hextall said. “He’s been through some things that you go through to make yourself a better player and a better athlete, and I think maturity-wise, Jars is in a much better place to handle things than he was a year and a half ago. So I I think Jars has grown a lot, and we’re certainly happy with him.”
Jarry is entering a contract year, and both sides have been talking. Hextall said they’ll continue talking and see if they can get something done before the season starts, but there isn’t any real urgency.
For everyone in that locker room, the focus is on winning, and the Penguins need their No. 1 netminder in order to do that. If last year taught us anything, it’s the importance of having a player of Jarry’s caliber between the pipes. And it will be exciting to see how all of the work he did this summer translates itself this season.
“I feel awesome,” he said. “I feel like I’m in good shape. I feel light. I feel ready to go.”
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