If you wanted the Penguins to get a decent draft pick this year those odds are dwindling. Even though the team has been getting thoroughly outplayed in recent games they continue to earn empty calorie victories.

In the past three games against Minnesota, Vegas, and St. Louis they’ve been out-attempted 110-183 at 5v5 and have an xGF% of 34.42. Certainly not the numbers of sustainable success. So why have they been able to pull it off? Sidney Crosby is certainly doing his part. He has two points in each of the last three games, but that lone wouldn’t be good enough.

The catalyst has been Tristan Jarry. He has decided to play the best hockey he's played all year when it matters the least. He’s stopped 97 out of his last 103 shots for a .942 save percentage. In Jarry’s previous five starts before his demotion he only combined for 90 saves out of 101 shots against for an .891 save percentage. For those hoping Jarry playing well will alter his perception around the league it is going to take more than a three-game stretch. He’s going to have to continue this for the remainder of the season and even then teams will still be looking at his larger sample.

A rare event also happened last night, no not the full lunar eclipse, it was a Ryan Graves goal. Graves in his 47th game of the year finally registered his first goal of the season. He is now tied with the elusive Alex Nedeljkovic in both goals (1) and points (2).

The Penguins feed for me didn’t have great video quality so I went with the St. Louis side of things. On the Blues second goal they had a little fun with it paying homage to legendary Penguins broadcaster, Mike Lange. After Dylan Holloway scored John Kelly belted out a “buy Sam a drink and get his dog one, too”. I thought it was a really nice gesture and shows how wide loved Langer was around the league.

"Buy Sam a drink and get his dog one, too?" #stlblues pic.twitter.com/fumbwhDP11

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) March 14, 2025

The Penguins will be back in action on Saturday afternoon against the Devils.

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