Jarry, Line Changes Power Pens to Victory

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Here are the 3 biggest takeaways from the game…
1. Jarry keeps making strides
There were a lot of things that Tristan Jarry had to adjust to this season. Not only was it his first as the Penguins' starting goalie; he said that the style of play is different than what he had been accustomed to.
"Last year was more north-south, with a lot of down-low plays with pucks being pumped to the blue line and a lot of shots on net with rebounds," he said. "I think this year is more so east-west. You see a lot of games throughout the league are high-scoring games. There's a lot more skill and time with the puck and not as much momentum swings without the fans. So I think the game is a little bit different this year and something I had to adapt to."
With a condensed training camp and no exhibition games, Jarry said that he had to work even harder in practice to improve his game after a slow start and get it to where it is right now. Tonight he thrived despite facing a heavy workload for the second straight game, and has stopped 78 of the last 82 shots he's faced.
"I thought Tristan was solid," Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. "I think he's really making strides. He looks much more comfortable in the crease. He's challenging the shooter. He's tracking the puck through traffic. His rebound control has improved. We see a lot of the characteristics of Tristan's game when he's at his best. We see him making progress in a lot of those areas."
The 25-year-old is starting to resemble the goalie who earned an All-Star nod last season, and his teammates and coach can't say enough about his play.
"When your goalie has a certain demeanor in the crease and a certain comfort level, I think that can be contagious along the bench," Sullivan said. "It's an interesting thing to watch as a coach, but when your goaltender is comfortable and making saves for your team, it has a psychological impact in a positive way on the group in front of him," Sullivan said. "I think Tristan is doing that for us right now."
2. Changes in top-six pay off
The Penguins switched up their top-six, flipping Kasperi Kapanen and Bryan Rust on the right side. Kapanen skated with Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby, while Rust played with Jason Zucker and Evgeni Malkin.
"We're trying to find some balance in our lineup," Sullivan said. "We think it's important to have that competitive balance in order to win consistently. We were trying to make some adjustments so we could get more effective balance through the four forward lines. I thought tonight, it was effective."
It certainly was, as the changes paid immediate dividends. On one of his first shifts of the game, Kapanen made a tremendous play to strip Islanders forward Brock Nelson of the puck at the circle and managed to get a shot on goal while simultaneously falling and being draped by three white jerseys. Crosby was there to get his stick on it and make it change direction just enough to fool Varlamov.
Meanwhile, the Zucker-Malkin-Rust trio continued to get better as the night progressed, and all three players ended up with two-point performances.
"I thought we started training camp this year with some good chemistry and kind of lost it first few games of the year," Zucker said. "We're just trying to get that back, and I think tonight was a good step in that direction. This is a good building block game for us, and we just got to keep getting better from here on out."
3. Matheson makes incredible play in great performance
Mike Matheson made a give-and-go to himself to set up Blueger's goal, and it was AWESOME. I've never seen anything like it before, and I don't think the Islanders did either, because it looked like they were caught puck-watching.
Matheson shot off the back boards on purpose, jumped by his check and kept the play alive by regaining the puck and finding Blueger at the side of the net.
"It was just kind of an instinctual play," Matheson said. "It wasn't really something that I was looking to do before the game or anything like that. They're so good at blocking shots, so I was just trying to get a lane by them and felt like I could step in there and try to get behind their winger."
Overall, Matheson was a factor all night long in this game, turning in an outstanding performance. He was on the ice for all four Penguins goals to get a plus-4 rating along with his assist.
"I thought Mike had a real strong game on both sides of the puck," Sullivan said. "You can see his skating ability and how effective it is, both defending and taking time and space from our opponents and closing on people. And then offensively, his ability to join the rush. So I think he's getting more comfortable in his surroundings. I really think that's helping him and he's playing a confident game right now. So we really like the progress he's made, and we're hoping we can continue to build on it."