DeSmith not good enough for Penguins this season

The Penguins are on an unreal run right now.

They extended their winning streak to nine games with an outstanding 5-3 comeback win against the Blues at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday. They haven't lost a game in over a month, with the last loss coming on Dec. 1 in Edmonton.

Despite players like Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, and Jake Guentzel all missing extended stretches of time this season, and Evgeni Malkin still awaiting his season debut, this team is sitting in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division, five points out of first place with two games in hand.

What's happening right now is special.

It's hard to find much to criticize when it comes to this team at this point in the season.

There's one weakness that's hard to ignore, and it's the backup goaltender.

It's stating the obvious in saying that Casey DeSmith has underperformed this season. You can see it, and the numbers back it up.

The stat GSAx (goals saved above expected) is a better measure than traditional metrics like goals-against average or save percentage, because it takes into account when a goalie is getting let down by the players in front of him. It takes into account not only the quantity of shot attempts, but how likely a shot is to turn into a goal based on a number of factors, including shot distance, angle, whether it's off of a rush or a rebound, and more. If a goalie is letting in just as many goals as expected based on the workload he's getting, his GSAx would be zero. Anything above zero, he's performing above expectations and bailing out his team. Anything in the negatives, he's underperforming and letting in more goals than he should relative to the workload he gets.

DeSmith's GSAx after Wednesday's game is -7.6, ranking seventh from the bottom among all goaltenders in the league.

It's just not good enough, even for a backup.

DeSmith got the start in Wednesday's game. It was the first of a set of back-to-backs, and the Penguins were presumably saving Tristan Jarry for Thursday's divisional matchup against the Flyers, a plan that would also give Jarry an extra day to get game-ready after recovering from COVID and experiencing symptoms. 

The Penguins held St. Louis to seven shots on goal in the first period, and DeSmith stopped all seven. Then, things started to fall apart. 

The Blues opened the second period with leftover power play time from the first period, and Brayden Schenn beat DeSmith with a shot from the right circle 20 seconds into the middle frame:

It was a good shot from Schenn, but it was also unscreened.

At the 8:45 minute mark, Vladimir Tarasenko just blew past Brian Dumoulin to set up Jordan Kyrou for a shot that grazed the top of DeSmith's pads on the way in:

Bryan Rust got the Penguins on the board at 13:30 with a power play goal, but the Blues responded 19 seconds later when Colton Parayko's shot through traffic beat DeSmith:

That last goal was the least egregious of the three DeSmith gave up, but it ended DeSmith's night. He allowed three goals on 16 shots in 33:49. Jarry entered the game and was perfect on 13 shots in relief to earn the win.

Mike Sullivan called it a "coach's instinct" to make the switch when he did.

"I didn't think Casey was tracking it as well as he has been," Sullivan said. "I just felt like it was the right thing to do at the time. ... But you know, it doesn't diminish how we feel about Casey. He's played some really good minutes for us. He's a quality goaltender."

While DeSmith's performance in this game was a factor in Sullivan's decision to make the change, it was also a "wake up call" to the players to tighten their games. And they shouldered some of the blame for DeSmith's tough night.

"It's kind of a wake up call to the rest of us," Rust said. "I think that just shows that we weren't quite as tight in front of Casey as we could have been. And I think that's on us, but I think we had a nice wake up call. And after that, we were out there, we were playing hard."

"I don't think right at that moment, we were playing our best," Brock McGinn said. "That's not on Casey there. I think that's everybody in front of him. So I think it's a wake up call for our bench, and just letting everybody know, we've got to step it up and get out there and play our game."

This was DeSmith's second consecutive start, after being in net for what nearly became a Sharks comeback from a 6-1 deficit on Sunday. He allowed five goals on 27 shots, a night when his xGA (expected goals against) was just 1.98 based on his workload. Not all of the goals DeSmith allowed in that game were his fault either, but it was a concerning collapse on his end.

The Penguins are carrying a third goaltender on the active roster in Louis Domingue, called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after the holiday break. 

Domingue, 29, has NHL experience with the Flames, Canucks, Devils, Lightning, and Coyotes in the last seven seasons. He has average career NHL numbers, recording a career 58-59-10 record, 3.05 goals-against average and .904 save percentage.

Domingue appeared in 10 games for Wilkes-Barre this season, missing time at the start of the season and then again before the holiday break due to injuries and then COVID. He was a bright spot backstopping an underwhelming Wilkes-Barre team, at times behind an exceptionally depleted roster, posting a 2.69 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.

I don't know if Domingue is the answer, but he might just be an improvement. We won't know unless he gets into a game at this level.

I don't think it would be ideal for the Penguins to get down to the tail end of the season without seeing Domingue play an NHL game. Looking back at last season, the Penguins didn't start third goaltender Max Lagace until the final game of the regular season, a 29-save shutout of the Sabres. Whether that counted as action against an NHL team is debatable.

When DeSmith was hurt for the playoff run and Jarry began to struggle, the Penguins didn't give Lagace a chance. It didn't help his case that he was unproven at the NHL level for that season.

The Penguins need DeSmith to be better for them this season. But it might be a good idea to start Domingue in one of these upcoming games in the meantime. Best case scenario, he turns out to be a clear improvement and supplants DeSmith as backup. If not, they'd at least have a better idea of what they have in Domingue moving forward.

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Rust's first goal cut the Blues' lead to one goal:

• After the Blues responded 19 seconds later to make it a two-goal game again, Rust got his second of the night -- his fifth in two games -- late in the second period to bring the Penguins back within one goal:

"I think our line was pretty good from the start," Rust said afterward. "I think we did great this game."

• Jake Guentzel's secondary assist on Rust's second goal extended his point streak to 15 games. The last Penguin to record a point streak longer was Pascal Dupuis' 17-game streak in the 2011-12 season.

• Sidney Crosby and Niko Mikkola got into a scuffle, leading to Crosby getting cut across the nose. With his own blood dripping down his face, he headed to the locker room to get temporarily stitched up, later getting real stitches after the game.

• Unfortunately for the Blues, Crosby then went into "beast mode" in the third period as Sullivan put it. It was his third-period goal that tied the game:

"He was so strong on the puck in the battle areas," Sullivan said of Crosby's night. "He goes to the net, the goal he scored was vintage Crosby for me. He's so good down low. He's so good in the traffic. He's so strong on the puck. When he's playing the game that way, he's the standard-bearer for the team. I think he raises the intensity level for our group."

• The Blues challenged that play for goaltender interference, failing the challenge because officials determined Crosby remained outside the crease. Prior to 2019-20, the consequence for a failed challenge was a loss of a timeout. Since the 2019-20 season, the consequence for a failed challenge is a two-minute minor penalty, becoming a double minor with subsequent failed challenges. Sullivan has been outspoken about not liking the rule many times in the past, and he repeated that criticism of the rule tonight, even when it worked out in his team's favor.

"We've talked about this I think an awful lot," he said. "Goalie interference is a real difficult challenge for any coaching staff, because there's just a lot of gray area. ... I've said this on a number of occasions, I wish the consequence for being wrong in that circumstance wasn't so drastic. But it is, and those are the rules, and we all have to live by them. But it certainly makes the coaching staff's decision very difficult."

• You know how the left circle is typically referred to as Alex Ovechkin's office because of the one-timers he's consistently unleashing from that spot on the power play. Evan Rodrigues is barging in and making it his office this season, like Nellie did to Andy in that one episode of The Office. With the Blues shorthanded because of the failed challenge, Rodrigues added to insult to injury with a one-timer from the left circle, something he's made a habit of doing lately:

That goal stood to be the game-winner. And it looked awfully similar to other shots we've seen from Rodrigues this season, like this one against the Canadiens three weeks ago:

• Brock McGinn put the game away with 1:39 remaining with this goal:

• Rust led the Penguins with NINE shots on goal.

• McGinn led with four hits.

• The Penguins recorded nine blocked shots. Four came from Dumoulin alone.

• This was equipment manager Paul DeFazio's 1500th career game. The Penguins recognized him on the videoboard during one of the stoppages. Before the game he was presented with a jersey with his name and 1500 on the back, and the team gifted him a new grill for his backyard. 

DeFazio was given the team MVP helmet after the game by the previous recipient, Kasper Bjorkqvist. I'm pretty sure he got the loudest ovation from the team of any other handoff this season:

• Rodrigues has scored at a point-per-game pace since he accidentally became a unicorn:

• The sale of the team to Fenway Sports Group became official on Dec. 31, and representatives from the group have been in town this week for the first time since the sale. Tom Werner, chairman and one of the founders of Fenway Sports Group, spoke with a select few outlets at intermission about topics like his thoughts on the Penguins' management, the future of the core, payroll, plans for the Civic Arena site, and more. You can read my story on that here.

• In case you missed it Wednesday afternoon, Sam Lafferty is a Blackhawk. Read more about the trade and the return in Alex Nylander here.

• The Penguins sold 17,921 tickets for this game, 266 shy of a sellout.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Sidney Crosby, Penguins
2. Evan Rodrigues, Penguins
3. Bryan Rust, Penguins

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES, ILLNESSES

• Forward Evgeni Malkin is still recovering from his offseason knee surgery. He expects to play on the Penguins upcoming western road trip.

• Forward Jason Zucker is dealing with an undisclosed lower-body injury and is out week-to-week. He was put on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 19. He started skating on his own this week.

• Forward Jeff Carter was added to the COVID protocol Jan. 1. He has been cleared to come out of protocol, but wasn't yet ready to play in Wednesday's game.

• Forward Drew O'Connor tested positive for COVID on Tuesday and was added to COVID protocol.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen - Evan Rodrigues - Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Brock McGinn
Kasper Bjorkqvist - Brian Boyle - Dominik Simon

Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - John Marino
Mike Matheson - Chad Ruhwedel

And for Craig Berube's Blues

Brandon Saad - Ryan O'Reilly - David Perron
Jordan Kyrou - Robert Thomas - Vladimir Tarasenko
Pavel Buchnevich - Ivan Barbashev - Brayden Schenn
Logan Brown - Tyler Bozak - Oskar Sundqvist

Niko Mikkola - Colton Parayko
Torey Krug - Justin Faulk
Marco Scandella - Scott Perunovich

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins got on a plane to Philadelphia after the game and will play the Flyers Thursday at 7:08 p.m., which Dejan and I will cover. Dave will then go on the western road trip.

THE CONTENT

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