Mark Madden's Hot Take: Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry has to earn back trust

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ decline can’t be traced directly to their goaltending situation.

But the timeline certainly parallels.

The Penguins went from Marc-Andre Fleury, who lit up the dressing room, to Matt Murray, aka Eeyore with a blocker. Murray had to be nurtured constantly.

They went from Murray to Tristan Jarry, who has an attention span that badly needs to be lengthened. Goalies need to be relaxed. Jarry may be too relaxed.

At least Murray won two Stanley Cups before fading. Jarry single-handedly blew last year’s opening-round playoff series against the New York Islanders.

The Penguins have lots of problems, not least injuries to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

But the biggest issue is goaltending.

Few goaltenders ever have mangled a playoff series like Jarry did.

But in the wake of that travesty, GM Ron Hextall stood pat in the blue paint.

Hextall didn’t acquire a legit veteran alternative, or even a backup better than Casey DeSmith. Hextall chose to start the 2021-22 season with Jarry as the unquestioned starter.

That puts Jarry under a lot of pressure. Same goes for Hextall.

The big move was changing goalie coaches. Andy Chiodo, the new hire, seems to be having impact on Jarry. But let’s see what happens when the real games start Tuesday night. At 26, how much is Jarry really going to change?

Everyone affiliated with the Penguins has said all the right things regarding Jarry, particularly when it comes to trusting him.

But nobody really trusts Jarry.

That trust has to be re-earned, and it can’t really be re-earned until Jarry wins a playoff series. There will be many anxious moments between now and when/if that happens.

The PPG Paints Arena crowd absolutely, 100% won’t trust Jarry. Wait till he lets in a bad goal at home, and that bad goal leads to a bad loss.

That happens to every goalie. It’s part of the job. But Jarry has lost the benefit of that doubt.

Jarry’s teammates will be thinking what the crowd is yelling.

Jarry is the story. That’s unless Hextall or coach Mike Sullivan changes the narrative at some point.