Asked simply to evaluate the performance of Penn State goaltender Peyton Jones, Denis Smirnov finished his compliment of the netminder’s play before circling back to the obvious.

Allowing the ninth-most goals per game nationally, the Nittany Lions would very much like to play better defense in front of Jones.

What team wouldn’t?

Very few coaches or players across the country are likely to publicly express satisfaction with everything they’ve done defensively, especially this early in the season. And shielding one’s goaltender from any sort of blame has become standard in the hockey world.

But it’s just a little easier to take Penn State’s staff and players seriously when they get protective of their third-year netminder.

“He’s been great, obviously,” Smirnov said. “He’s saved a lot of shots, some big saves this weekend [against Ohio State]. He kept us in the game.”

Penn State’s high-scoring style is fun for even the neutral observer. Any team averaging more than a goal per game than anyone else without much apparent regard for the defensive caveats is going to make for an entertaining 60 minutes almost every time it takes the ice.

It also creates an unenviable task for Jones, who has drawn more public criticism than any player on Penn State’s roster over the last three years.

But is that fair?

As the Nittany Lions fly up the ice, taking almost every risk possible to increase their chances of scoring, Jones has been left to deal with the repercussions whenever those risks don’t pay off.

It begs the question: How equipped are those outside the Penn State locker room to evaluate how good Jones is? How do we account for the odd-man rushes and the silly penalties and the defensive zone turnovers?

The simple answer is that we can’t.

The statistics available for public consumption are not advanced enough. Jones’ .907 save percentage — 43rd in the country — does not begin to provide the context needed to compare him fairly against goaltenders around the country and around the Big Ten.

Penn State plays a different game than its competitors, and Jones’ numbers are skewed because of it.

Guy Gadowsky is in many respects an old-school coach. The eye-test is still very much in use for his program.

But he has his own means of evaluating his goaltenders. It’s a formula that gave Jones two starts last weekend in an important series against No. 5 Ohio State and it’s the same formula that will give him the start this Friday against Wisconsin.

“I didn’t play the position,” he said, “so I think it’s fair that you look at the numbers. It’s not only the numbers, but for goaltending specifically, if all is equal and you have a large enough sample size I think that’s a fair way to do it.

“If you want to be more accurate you have to take power-play goals out of it, that’s what analytics will do. And if you really want to get down to it, you have to take odd-man rushes away from it too.”

In the statistically deprived college hockey world, we have no way of knowing how Jones stacks up against other netminders within the criteria his head coach described.

So as the Nittany Lions continue to stand up for their goaltender as hockey players always do, there is little choice but to take them at face value.

And it’s clear Penn State isn’t about to throw its goaltender under the bus anytime soon. The Nittany Lions know just how hard Jones’ job must be as they expose their goaltender, choosing offense at all costs over defensive security.

“He really played well this weekend I thought,” forward Evan Barratt said. “He kept us in the game both nights, which is kind of the reason we won Friday night, he had some big saves and he had some big blocks. I thought he did a really good job this weekend.”