Questions in the crease came in waves Saturday at TD Garden.
Ahead of puck drop, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan disclosed that Tristan Jarry will be out “week-to-week” with a lower-body injury. Multiple sources told the Post-Gazette that the No. 1 netminder has a broken bone in his foot. Given the nature of the injury and the fact that there are just two weeks left in the regular season, Jarry’s availability for the postseason has been cast into question.
If Casey DeSmith is going to be the goalie to carry the load during Jarry’s absence, his start on Saturday did little to inspire confidence. Two minutes into the game? The Penguins backup had allowed two goals.
However, DeSmith improved as the game went on Saturday in a 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins. He saved all 27 of the shots he faced after Boston’s early blitz. Along the way, he showed a level of mental fortitude to stop the bleeding after that worrisome start to the game.
“I was happy with how I played,” DeSmith said. “I had to make a couple good saves in the first period, some in the third. Just trying to go out there and give our team a chance. I thought I did that today.”
The Penguins never dug themselves out of that early deficit in a low-event game with just six high-danger, even-strength scoring chances on each side, according to Natural Stat Trick. A lack of offensive production against a structured Bruins squad and an 0-for-3 effort on the power play were the bigger culprits for the loss.
But you can’t ignore the start.
Just 49 seconds in, Craig Smith threw a harmless-looking wrist shot on net from the top of the right circle. DeSmith made two questionable decisions. First, he popped the puck into the air with his blocker hand, sending a juicy rebound out in the slot. Secondly, he slid completely out of the blue paint to make the initial save, which left the net completely vacant for Trent Frederic to clean up the rebound.
Just 1:12 later, the Penguins were again fishing the puck out of the net behind DeSmith. From a tough angle at the bottom of the right circle, Erik Haula tossed a pass in front. Taylor Hall, with one foot parked in the blue paint, appeared to be in position to tap in the backdoor play. Instead, the puck careened off Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson’s skate and into the net.
The Penguins pulled within a goal in the second period, when Danton Heinen netted his third goal in three games. But that was as close as they got.
“The first two [minutes], we weren’t ready to play,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s hard to spot a team two goals like that, in the fashion that we did. It makes it hard to win. I think that was the biggest takeaway.”
Let’s pivot back to DeSmith, who very realistically could be the option for Game 1 of the playoffs.
The fact that he is again under the microscope is nothing new. After struggling early on, his season reached a critical inflection point in mid-January. The 30-year-old career backup was yanked in back-to-back games. At that juncture, he was lugging around a subpar .886 save percentage and 3.6 goals-against average.
Had third goalie Louis Domingue not gone down with a foot injury of his own during a mid-January morning skate, he could have rivaled DeSmith for the backup gig. After all, Domingue stole a win in San Jose in his single NHL outing of the season, saving 40-of-41 shots.
By the time Jarry ventured to Las Vegas for his second career All-Star game appearance, the backup goalie position appeared to some to be one of the more-pressing team needs.
Ultimately, a confluence of factors led general manager Ron Hextall to instead add a scoring threat in Rickard Rakell. For one, there were not many — if any — realistic goalie upgrades out there. Secondly, the limited salary cap space prevented the front office from making numerous changes to the roster. Adding a scorer boosted the ceiling more than a backup goalie would have provided a safety net.
Finally, DeSmith’s performance improved. Including Saturday, he’s recorded a solid .922 save percentage and 2.4 goals-against average in his last 13 outings since that low-water mark in January.
“He expects the best from himself,” said Teddy Blueger, who knows DeSmith well from their days in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and even designed one of DeSmith’s masks for him. “He sets the bar high for himself. He’s very competitive and he’s a great goalie. We all know he’s going to get it done for us when he’s on the ice.”
Saturday was similar in many ways to DeSmith’s season, getting better as it went along. After allowing those two early goals, shut down Brad Marchand on a 2-on-1 in the first. He squared up to make several other saves look easy, while not being tested a ton.
Two goals in 2:01 is not great. But two goals over 60 minutes does give the team a chance to win.
Now, with just five games remaining and the Capitals close on the Penguins heels for third place in the Metropolitan Division, Pittsburgh’s challenges are numerous. With points still at a premium to avoid playing a first-place division winner like the Florida Panthers, the Penguins will simultaneously need to get DeSmith’s game into postseason form while also figuring out what they have in Domingue.
“It’s good for me going into playoffs to get some more games in,” DeSmith said. “If I have to play at all in the playoffs, I’ll be that much more prepared.”
