For the third consecutive game, the Penguins will start someone other than Tristan Jarry between the pipes.
Alex Nedeljkovic – who started his first game of the season on Sunday after being activated from his AHL conditioning loan – will get the call against the Calgary Flames Tuesday for his second straight start, and rookie Joel Blomqvist will, again, back him up.
Head coach Mike Sullivan has stressed that the decision to hold Jarry out is strictly to give him extra opportunities to work with the coaching and training staff. He also mentioned that Jarry will see the ice whenever they feel comfortable with where he’s at with his current work.
While the goaltending situation was probably, at least, somewhat, expected, the lineup has shifted around yet again:
Michael Bunting is back in the lineup alongside Evgeni Malkin and Rickard Rakell, and Valtteri Puustinen and Ryan Shea are out. Jack St. Ivany is back in the lineup as well in his usual spot next to Ryan Graves on the third pairing.
The Penguins had practiced with different line combinations in practice yesterday, with Jesse Puljujarvi on the fourth line and Cody Glass in his place on the third. But Sullivan spoke Tuesday morning about how impressed they are with Puljujarvi’s body of work.
“He’s scored some, what I would call, goal-scorer’s goals, here in this early part of the season and also in the exhibition games,” Sullivan said. “So, we really like what he’s brought to the table so far.”
Calgary is off to a scorching start this season with a record of 4-0-1. They are currently fifth in the league in power play percentage at 29.4 percent, and they are tied for the league lead with only five five-on-five goals-against. They are coming off an overtime loss against the Seattle Kraken and will look to extend their regulation unbeaten streak.
