Tim Benz: Is Barry Trotz already playing mind games with Penguins' goalies? Or just telling the truth?

May 12—I don't think what New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said about the Pittsburgh Penguins exactly qualifies as "trash talk."

Hardly "straight fire" as you kids say on the Twitters and the TikToks.

But it's worth noting.

During his postgame comments following New York's overtime loss in Boston on Monday night, Trotz was asked about facing the Penguins in the first round of the NHL playoffs.

He went through the usual coach speak of propping up the opponent, citing chapter and verse all the positive attributes of the 2021 East Division champs. Until he got to one position in particular.

"They've got a real good forward group. The (defensemen) are mobile. They've got two inexperienced goaltenders. And they play a real good team game. They aren't afraid to put it north and forecheck. They play a 200-foot game," Trotz said.

Pretty dismissive assessment of the Penguins goalie situation, wasn't it?

Everything about the Penguins is great. But, simply put, the goalies are "inexperienced."

And that's it.

As I said, I'm not even sure that quote rises to the level of bulletin-board material. How about we call that ... umm ... "accidental transparency"?

Does that work for you? Because I think that sums up what was said.

We need to point out something else. Trotz is right.

Both Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith are inexperienced in the playoffs. Jarry has one start — a 2-0 loss in Game 4 of the 2020 qualifying round series failure against the Montreal Canadiens.

DeSmith has exactly one less postseason start than that.

So all Trotz is doing is telling the truth. But that statement is also a window into his mind about what he thinks of the Penguins goalies heading into the series. It's obvious he's thinking that there might be an advantage for his Islanders to exploit in the opposing net.

Since Trotz is accurate, the response back from Penguins fans — or even Pens head coach Mike Sullivan — should be: "Yeah. Our guys are inexperienced. But what's the situation in their cage?"

One of the New York goalies, 25-year-old Ilya Sorokin, doesn't have any postseason experience either. His NHL debut just occurred in January. The other netminder, presumptive series starter Semyon Varlamov, does have lots of experience. He's 32 and has been between the pipes in 46 postseason games.

His numbers are respectable. Varlamov is 24-20 with a 2.38 goals against average and a .917 save percentage. But four of those losses came against Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 2009 playoffs. He allowed 16 goals in those four defeats.

Not to mention, Varlamov suffered what Trotz called a "strain" of some sort during that loss Monday night and was pulled from the game. Yet Trotz insisted that Varlamov could've kept playing if necessary. He just preferred to be cautious so close to the playoffs.

Later in his comments, Trotz also managed to work in how much he liked his own goaltending situation. And he subtly stated how his Islanders are "comfortable when things are uncomfortable."

Which, perhaps, "inexperienced" goalies may not be.

That makes me believe Trotz's comments were as much mind games as anything else. We've seen Trotz do this during prior series against the Penguins when he was coaching with the Islanders or the Capitals.

He usually avoids bluster and bombast but specializes in mild jabs and complaints about officiating and game trends. As he did after that Bruins game when he shoehorned in an understated but obvious gripe that the Bruins were allegedly exaggerating contact to draw penalties.

If Sullivan is looking for another counter to deflect the attempts to rattle Jarry and DeSmith, it's pretty easy. "Inexperienced" as they may be, those two were good enough to win six games in eight tries against the Islanders this year, allowing just 2.38 goals per game. Of their seven East Division opponents, only the last-place Buffalo Sabres had a worse goals per game average against the Penguins this season (1.75).

For his part, Jarry is 8-1 against the Islanders in nine starts over his career. His .925 save percentage and 2.12 goals against average are better numbers than he has against any other East Division team.

If I know that, then Trotz knows that. Which, if you made me guess, is exactly why he said what he said.

Jarry knows he can beat the Islanders. What he doesn't know is if he can win playoff games. So Trotz wants him thinking about that second thing instead.

So let the games begin. On the ice. And in the heads of the players.

The Penguins are certainly "experienced" enough to know this is all part of the process.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.