Tristan Jarry has picked up the nickname “Casual Jars” around the Penguins dressing room.
Watch him on the ice, or talk to him before and after games, and you might catch yourself wondering if this guy — an elite athlete playing at hockey’s highest level — even has a pulse.
“He’s just calm,” Bryan Rust said. “He never gets too high, never gets too low. I think as a goalie, you see that in all good goalies. For him to just kind of have that next-shot focus is what makes him so good.”
Have his teammates — most of whom have known Jarry for years — ever seen him get excited about anything, on or off the ice?
“I don’t know,” Jake Guentzel said. “It’s tough. It feels like he’s always relaxed and calm, just the way he handles himself.”
“No,” offered Casey DeSmith. “I’ve seen him smile, but I’ve never seem him get pumped, exclaim or anything like that. He is even-keel and it seems to work for him.”
“I don’t even know if there’s a time I could really tell you he was that excited,” answered Bryan Rust.
“He’s a big car guy,” Conor Sheary said. “So maybe when he gets a new car he seems pretty excited at the rink the next day.”
OK, so maybe some things get Jarry pumped up, but certainly nothing on the ice.
For as long as Matt Murray remains out with a concussion, the Penguins will rely on Jarry’s even-keel nature to hold their spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
“It almost looks lazy at times, but he’s the kind of goalie that kind of gets in position early and makes really good reads,” Sheary said. “I think he’s definitely a gamer. When he gets into the game, he steps it up another level.”
As DeSmith said, though, that relaxed, calm vibe works for Jarry when it comes to his game in net. It allowed him to bounce back from allowing five goals in Boston in the Penguins’ 8-4 loss Thursday night. In the two games since, he has won back-to-back overtime games.
Even within games, Jarry’s ability to move on quickly has served him well. After he allowed a supremely fluky goal in the first period against the Islanders on Saturday, he didn’t let it stick with him for longer than a few minutes.
“He came to the bench and first, he was not smiling,” DeSmith said. “Everyone else was kind of laughing about it, and then you could see a smile kind of come on his face. Being able to just let that go and not beat himself up, I think that was a big asset in winning that game, being able to pull it off in overtime.”
From Jarry’s perspective, he said he has always been a pretty relaxed guy, but he also believes it’s a mental aspect of his game that can be trained and focused.
“Growing up, I’ve been pretty laid-back person,” he said. “I think that helped me a lot. I think just growing up, I had a lot of people help me with that. This year, I think [goalie coach] Mike [Buckley]’s helped me a lot with it, just being able to forget things quickly and be able to move on.”
Mike Sullivan often praises Murray for his calm demeanor on the ice, and he sees a lot of that in Jarry, too. The important thing, Sullivan said, is that it’s not forced, and is a genuine part of each goalie’s personality.
“Fortunately, with the guys that we have in goal, there’s a demeanor that’s just innate that’s part of their personality that helps them be the goaltenders that they are,” Sullivan said. “That’s not to say that there aren’t goaltenders that are really intense and are volatile emotionally that aren’t really good, as well.
“I think it’s really about being true to yourself, but one of the things we really like about Tristan — and Matt has similar attributes — is just the calm demeanor that they have. Because of that, I think they have the ability to settle the team down in front of them when they make a timely save.”
Sullivan did admit, though, that they’re still trying to fine-tune that part of Jarry’s game.
“The discussion I have with Tristan all the time is there’s a fine line between poise and nonchalance,” Sullivan said. “I think that’s part of Tristan’s personality, where we want him to be poised but we certainly don’t want him to be nonchalant. We have those discussions weekly with Tristan.”
Jarry's focus will certainly be tested if Sullivan sticks with him for Wednesday night’s game in Philadelphia. The Flames tried their best to fluster and rattle him Monday by being physical around the net, but Jarry stood tall and made 35 saves — including all 14 shots he faced in the third period and overtime — to earn the win. In an emotional rivalry game against the Flyers, he expects more of the same.
“Just stand my ground,” he said. “I think that’s a big thing. I have to get to my position as quick as I can, try and get to it before they do.”
A win would be big for the Penguins in terms of playoff positioning against a team close to them in the standings, but if they pull it off, don’t expect a huge celebration from Jarry.
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG
First Published: March 6, 2018, 7:17 p.m.