SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Louis Domingue will make his first start of the season when the Penguins face the Sharks at SAP Center Saturday night.
In the process, he'll be auditioning for more steady work with them.
Casey DeSmith, who is Tristan Jarry's backup, is in the COVID-19 protocol, which has given Domingue a chance to move onto the NHL roster.
With the Penguins concerned about not wanting to overwork Jarry, who has started the past five games, Mike Sullivan and his staff decided it was time to get Domingue into a game.
"We're trying to manage workloads with Tristan," Sullivan said after the Penguins' game-day skate. "He's had a heavy workload to this point, and we have to make sure we manage the workload moving forward, so we keep both of our goaltenders -- all of our goaltenders -- in the best possible position to be successful."
Using Domingue against San Jose will allow the coaches to begin assessing whether he's a viable candidate to bump DeSmith, who has had a disappointing season, from the No. 2 spot on the depth chart.
"There's always competition for every position on our team," Sullivan said. "That's the nature of pro sports."
Domingue, who signed with the Penguins as a free agent in September, is 3-4-2, with a 2.69 goals-against average and .918 save percentage in 10 appearances with the Penguins' farm team in Wilkes-Barre.
He is 29 years old and is 58-59-10 in 140 career NHL games with Arizona, Tampa Bay, New Jersey, Vancouver and Calgary.
Domingue is 6 foot 3, 210 pounds and catches with his right hand.
And while he, like most goalies, doesn't handle the puck as well as Jarry, Brock McGinn said Domingue's teammates shouldn't have to make any significant adjustments with him in the game.
"Everybody in this dressing room has confidence in Louis or Jarry, so whoever's in net, we want to go out and play the same game plan," he said. "Just go out there and work and play Penguins hockey."
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Sullivan said that the DeSmith and the three forwards -- Bryan Rust, Zach Aston-Reese and Danton Heinen -- who have been in the COVID protocol remain there, but that any or all who test out of it would join the Penguins in Las Vegas, where they will play Monday, rather than returning to Pittsburgh.
• McGinn skated in his customary spot at right wing on the No. 3 iine with Teddy Blueger and Radim Zohorna, and is expected to play after sitting out the past three games following a positive test for coronavirus that forced him to quarantine in a Dallas hotel room for five days.
• Sullivan, on the Sharks: "They're a talented hockey club. They've got a quick-strike offense. They generate a lot of their offense from their blue line. They have two elite defensemen in (Brent) Burns and (Erik) Karlsson, and they're never out of the game."
• McGinn, on being quarantined after testing positive for COVID there. "It was a long six days or whatever in that hotel. ... (I watched) a lot of shows. They got a (stationary) bike in our rooms, so we were able to bike and stuff like that, get a little active, at least."
