The Pittsburgh Penguins dragged a win back from the pits of Hell on Wednesday, overcoming deficits of 2-0, 3-1, and 5-4 to ultimately claim an overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres by the final score of 6-5. There was nothing pretty about most of the Penguins’ performance, with another sluggish start, another sloppy defensive performance, and another poor showing from Tristan Jarry, who was pulled after the Sabres scored their third goal on just five shots. Admirably, Pittsburgh’s forwards didn’t give up. Drew O’Connor’s shorthanded goal midway through the second period gave the Penguins some life, and Jesse Puljujarvi’s nifty backhander at 15:20 of the same period froze Buffalo goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and squared the contest back at three goals apiece. Evgeni Malkin scored his 500th career goal (on Sidney Crosby’s 1601st point, his second of the night), and the captain ultimately finished the game with Pittsburgh’s second power play goal of the night. All around it was an entertaining game, but certainly not for the faint of heart.

Well, Tristan Jarry. The silver lining is that he’s not the worst goaltender in the NHL right now! That distinction probably goes to Colorado’s Alexandar Georgiev, and there’s also Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner, Utah’s Connor Ingram, and a couple of other guys who have only played a couple games so far that could make a stronger argument than Jarry. But I would say if there was a tier list of worst goalies, Jarry would be in the third tier right now, and that’s bad news for a guy who already has everyone on pins and needles when it’s his turn to start. I get that the defense hasn’t been great, but at some point, as a goaltender who is expected to be a starter in the NHL, you should expect to be called upon to make some timely saves. The defense might straighten itself out, and so may Jarry. Which would you bet on?

Jarry’s inconsistency is the most pressing issue for the Penguins because…what do you do with him? He’s making $5.375M/year and Pittsburgh does not have the cap space to hide him in the AHL (if general manager Kyle Dubas really wanted to try that route). Trade him? To who? Like Jack Johnson or Ryan Graves before him, other GMs really don’t want to take on another team’s bad investment, certainly not without something far sweeter coming along with him. Even though the Penguins have two other fairly competent goaltenders in Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist, Nedeljkovic is not waiver eligible like Blomqvist. Thus, the reality is that, for now, Jarry probably isn’t going anywhere. But unless he corrects his inconsistency and plays like a Vezina-caliber goalie again, I have a hard time seeing him staying with Pittsburgh through the end of his contract.

The positive spin is that the Penguins’ 3-2 start is good enough for second in the Metropolitan Division as of this writing. Before they head out on their western Canadian road trip, they have an important interdivisional matchup against a team which is not off to a good start. The Carolina Hurricanes have just one win in their first two games (a 4-2 win against the division-leading New Jersey Devils on Tuesday). It’s not for a lack of trying, as the Hurricanes are sporting some of the highest shot attempt rates in the NHL, but their five goals stand as the fewest in these very early days of the season. Carolina has made the postseason for six straight seasons but hasn’t been very consistent in those efforts.

I’ve been watching the Hurricanes casually for several years as I’ve anticipated them making a serious run at the Stanley Cup after nine years of missing the playoffs between Conference Finals appearances in 2009 and 2019. Health issues have derailed them at times, but you can tell a team’s quality and depth by how they’re able to overcome that. Which is to say that, for the past six seasons, Carolina hasn’t been quite deep enough to make that next step back into the Cup Finals for the first time since they won the championship in 2006. Their window to win the Cup again is shutting slowly now, with other teams in the Eastern Conference like the Florida Panthers, the Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs looking more serious on a year-to-year basis. If they can get a relatively-healthy season this year, I see no reason why they couldn’t make a serious run at the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, like it is for everyone, that’s one of the few things you really can’t control, which is why having good depth is important.