Sullivan says DeSmith was 'in a tough spot' after another Jarry bailout taken in Columbus, Ohio (Penguins)

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Tristan Jarry makes a save on Sean Kuraly in Columbus on Friday.

COLUMBUS, Ohio --  In fairness to Casey DeSmith, he almost certainly wasn't supposed to be in net Friday night at Nationwide Arena.

The Penguins started this set of back-to-back games at home Thursday against the Senators. Tristan Jarry was scheduled to start, and Louis Domingue was scheduled to be his backup.

That's not because of the results any backup goaltending battle, either.

DeSmith had just exited COVID protocol after spending his isolation period stuck in a hotel room in Anaheim, and only had one practice under his belt. He took limited reps in Wednesday's practice, splitting a net with Domingue, with Domingue taking on a heavier workload.

Even if DeSmith hadn't struggled as of late before COVID, and even if Domingue didn't have a stellar 40-save debut in San Jose just days before, it wouldn't have made the most sense to play DeSmith in this back-to-back. 

But when Domingue suffered an injury in Thursday's morning skate after taking a Brian Boyle shot to his right foot, it put the Penguins in a tough spot.

Especially after Jarry faced a barrage of 43 shots in Thursday's 6-4 win over the Senators, it just didn't make much sense to start him the following night here in Columbus.

DeSmith made the start, and his night only lasted 20 minutes, having allowed two goals on 12 shots in the first period. Jarry entered the game in relief at first intermission and was perfect for the remaining 40 minutes to earn the 5-2 win over the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

DeSmith wasn't set up for success, given the circumstances he was dealing with. But his struggles can't be completely attributed to his stint with COVID, either. The Penguins still have a backup goaltending problem.

"I think we put Casey in a tough spot tonight," Mike Sullivan said. "He's just coming off COVID. Our intent was to get him a couple of practices to get him more reps. Obviously, when Louis went down in the morning skate, it forced our hand there. I think we put him in a difficult circumstance tonight."

The two goals DeSmith let in weren't pretty.

Evgeni Malkin turned the puck over on the Penguins' power play, and Gustav Nyquist got a shorthanded rush up the other direction. He either faked or whiffed on his first attempt at a shot, drawing DeSmith out of the net. He finished with a shot from just above the goal line:

The second Blue Jackets goal just leaked through DeSmith's pads:

Jarry stopped all 15 shots he faced in relief, an impressive feat given his hard-fought 39-save performance just 24 hours before. 

Brian Dumoulin described Jarry's performance on Friday with the same two words Mike Matheson chose the night before: "Rock solid."

"He made some timely saves there for the second, we got hemmed in a few shifts and he came up with some big ones" Dumoulin said. "He's got a lot of confidence right now. It's fun to play in front of him."

Sidney Crosby amped up the adjectives, calling Jarry "unbelievable for us all year."

"Coming in on a back-to-back, coming in after being on the bench for a period, that's never easy," Crosby said of Jarry's performance Friday. "I don't think we've necessarily made it easy on him. You know, in the second they had some good looks, so he had to make some big saves, and that's not easy to do. He was huge and just kind of settled things down there in the second."

But Jarry can't start all 42 remaining games this season. He can't even start every game next week, given that the Penguins have another back-to-back set of games against the Kraken and Red Wings on Thursday and Friday. They need a capable backup goaltender to handle more than just the back-to-backs for the rest of the way if Jarry is going to remain fresh for the postseason.

It's tough to say what the answer may be.

Domingue seemed poised to compete for the backup job before his injury. His 40-save performance against the Sharks is a limited sample size, but it's not like he's new at this. He has a career record of 59-59-10 in the NHL over eight seasons, and he was one of the few consistent bright spots on a Wilkes-Barre team that is hovering around the basement of the AHL's standings. 

There's still no timeframe for Domingue's injury, as Sullivan said in his pregame media availability on Friday. I saw Domingue using crutches prior to the game on Thursday, but that doesn't necessarily mean that its something serious. He wasn't wearing a boot or any other kind of aid on his foot. Maybe they just wanted him to keep his weight off that foot until he could be evaluated. Who knows.

Goaltending prospect Filip Lindberg isn't an option. After an exceptional start in Wilkes-Barre, winning AHL goaltender of the month for the month of October with a 4-0 record, a 1.71 goals-against average and a .942 save percentage through the first four starts of his professional career, he officially became a member of the Penguins organization by suffering an ankle injury during Wilkes-Barre's game on Nov. 12. He started skating with the team leading up to the holiday break and seemed close to a return, but hasn't practiced with the team since the break. Head coach J.D. Forrest told me there is currently no timeframe for his return.

The only other NHL-contracted goaltender in the system is Alex D'Orio, who was great to finish last season in Wilkes-Barre, taking over the starting role with a 6-3-1 record, 2.18 goals-against average and .915 save percentage. In the offseason, the Penguins' development staff told him to be ready for NHL time this season. In true Penguins fashion, a series of various ailments had him behind the eight ball to start this season. He had an ear infection coming out of Wilkes-Barre's camp, and was sent to Wheeling to get playing time. He got the flu upon arriving in Wheeling. He dealt with various bumps and bruises. When he finally got healthy and earned the call back up to Wilkes-Barre, he got COVID.

Once he exited COVID protocol, D'Orio didn't get much support at all in front of him in the games he did start, and went 0-for-5 in his first six appearances. While Jarry was bailing out DeSmith in Columbus on Friday, D'Orio was down in Wilkes-Barre playing great, and finally earned his first win of the season after getting some support in front of him to match. He made 21 saves in a 5-1 win over Toronto, coming up huge in moments like this one on a 5-on-3 penalty kill:

I do think D'Orio has potential, and is often underrated or somehow forgotten about in discussions about the Penguins' prospect pool because he was undrafted. I think if he keeps putting together games like he did on Friday, he could earn NHL time this season. I don't think he's the answer for the backup job just yet, just given how young he is (22) and his lack of NHL experience to this point. 

Turning outside the organization for a more reliable veteran backup might be the answer. But it wouldn't be cheap.

Earlier in the season when the Canucks were struggling, a team might have been able to get Jaroslav Halak off of their hands for a pick or a prospect. But since Bruce Boudreau came in and completely turned that team around, they're now actually fighting for a playoff spot, and even if they would be willing to part with Halak, they might want a player who could help them now. Marc-Andre Fleury's name always comes up in these discussions, but even if the Blackhawks retain the maximum 50 percent of his $7 million cap hit, the Penguins still don't have the room to fit him, and would need to move some NHL assets out the other way in order to accommodate that cap hit.

There's just not an easy solution, at least not while Domingue is out. 

It's easier said than done, but the simple answer is just that DeSmith needs to be better. 

The Penguins are hoping to see DeSmith get his game back moving forward.

"Casey's played a lot of really good hockey for us." Sullivan said Friday. "We know the type of goalie that he is and what he's capable of, and we're going to work extremely hard to help Casey capture his best game. I thought he was gaining traction there before the break. It's been a little bit of a struggle since. But we know he's a good goaltender, we've got to help him get to his very best game."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Dumoulin opened the scoring just 32 seconds into the game with his third goal of the year:

• Letang got the secondary assist on the goal from Dumoulin, extending his career-high point streak to 10 games.

• Crosby scored in the final minute of the first period to tie the game:

• After a scoreless second period, Matheson made it a 3-2 game in the third period. It was his third goal in two games, and with it standing a the game-winner, it was his second game-winner in as many nights:

• It initially looked like Max Domi tied the game at 3-3, but the Penguins challenged the goal as being offside, and it was overturned. Sullivan credited the Penguins' video coaches with the decision to challenge the play.

"That was (video coach Andy Saucier and assistant video coach Madison Nikkel)," Sullivan said. "Those guys are All Stars with what they do. They know what the criteria is when we're making those decisions, we've talked a lot about that as a coaching staff before the season even starts. I have so much faith in those guys and what they see. There was no hesitation on their part at all. They radio to the bench that it's 100% offside."

• Crosby made it 4-2 with a power play goal:

• Crosby completed the hat trick with an empty net goal, the 12th hat trick of his career. The best part of the goal was that he wasn't even trying to score it, he was trying to get the puck up to Rust.

"I was just trying to throw it over there so Rusty could skate into it," Crosby said. "I didn't even expect it to go in. Once I kind of missed the play, we kind of got crossed up there. I expected that he was going to go straight, he ended up coming to the middle and I missed him. So I was more upset that I was going to get an icing out of it. So for it to go in was a big bonus."

• Despite the hat trick from Crosby, John Marino chose Matheson as the recipient of the Bold Penguin helmet, rewarding Matheson for a string of solid games. If you listen closely, you can hear Rust jokingly(?) accuse Marino of "disrespecting Sidney Crosby":

• Crosby led the Penguins with six shots on goal.

• Marino led with four blocked shots. 

Zach Aston-Reese played his first game since exiting COVID protocol. Before the game, Sullivan said that the decision to not play Aston-Reese last game was a result of both not wanting to change the lineup much from the Vegas game, and wanting Aston-Reese to get more practices in to get back up to normal form before putting him in a game. Aston-Reese sounded winded in his first intermission interview with Dan Potash, and said that he was still looking to get his "lungs" back. Aston-Reese didn't take any shifts at all in the third period, with Dominik Simon double shifting alongside Brock McGinn and Teddy Blueger in his place. I didn't get a chance to ask Sullivan about Aston-Reese following the game, but given that Aston-Reese remained on the bench for the entire period in his gear and wasn't off somewhere getting treatment for anything, it seems safe to say that he wasn't injured.

• The videoboard here has some cool features, and displays some actual live advanced stats during the game, as well as player tracking results for things like skating speed, shot speed, and more. One metric is total miles skated throughout the game, information I have absolutely no idea what to do with. Zach Werenski led the Blue Jackets with 4.1 miles skated. 

• Former Islanders legend Clark Gillies passed away at age 67 on Friday. Mario Lemieux released a statement mourning Gillies' death:

THE ESSENTIALS

Boxscore
Live file
Scoreboard
• 
Standings
• 
Statistics

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Nationwide Arena:

1. Sidney Crosby, Penguins
2. Brian Dumoulin, Penguins
3. Boone Jenner, Blue Jackets

THE HIGHLIGHTS

"

THE INJURIES

• Forward Drew O'Connor was put on LTIR retroactive to Jan. 15. He's week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

• Forward Jason Zucker was put on IR on Thursday and is considered week-to-week. It's the same nagging lower-body injury that sidelined him before his return in Vegas.

• Goaltender Louis Domingue was put on IR after he was struck in the foot by a puck in Thursday's morning skate. Sullivan did not have an idea of a timeframe for Domingue as of Friday evening. I saw Domingue using crutches prior to Thursday's game.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen - Evgeni Malkin - Kasperi Kapanen

Dominik Simon - Jeff Carter - Evan Rodrigues
Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Brock McGinn

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

And for Brad Larsen's Blue Jackets:

Patrik Laine - Boone Jenner - Jakub Voracek
Gustav Nyquist - Sean Kuraly - Oliver Bjorkstrand
Yegor Chinakhov - Alexandre Texier - Emil Bemstrom
Eric Robinson - Jack Roslovic - Max Domi

Zach Werenski - Andrew Peke
Gavin Bayreuthier - Jake Bean
Gabriel Carlsson - Jake Christiansen

THE SCHEDULE

Saturday was initially scheduled to be an off day, and then on Thursday the team changed it to a practice day. After Friday's game they changed it again to an optional skate and off-ice work day. The next game is Sunday at 1 p.m. when the Penguins host the Jets.

THE CONTENT

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