Many people, myself included, had the Rangers advancing past the opening round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs before they began, under the assumption Casey DeSmith would be between the pipes for the Penguins. Having known Louis Domingue would be the one actually in goal for the majority of the series would only solidify that sentiment.
Yet, through Game 4, the Penguins had a commanding 3-1 series lead heading back to New York, and even sat in the driver's seat halfway through Game 5 on Wednesday night before Sidney Crosby left the game after taking an elbow up high from Jacob Trouba. His absence was followed by a series of breakdowns from the Penguins that their third-string goaltender couldn't overcome, as they fell 5-3 to the Rangers.
It's remarkable in its own right that Domingue has gone 2-2 in his starts this postseason after coming into double-overtime of Game 1 off the bench and making 17 saves en route to victory, especially considering the Vezina front-runner Igor Shesterkin has manned the crease at the other end. That's far more than the Penguins could have asked of a goalie that played a single game at the NHL level during the regular season.
Even so, Tristan Jarry's nearing return from injury figures to provide a bit more stability in goal when the Penguins have their inevitable breakdowns, even if they last for only several minutes here and there. Domingue carries a clean .900 save percentage at the conclusion of Game 5, putting him 16th among 22 goaltenders to appear in 2 or more playoff games. There has been some misfortune on Domingue's end, as he's been beaten by a number of deflections, as well as several pucks that have ricocheted off his defensemen's skates, but it's clear the Penguins won't be able to trudge forward forever with him as the No. 1.
Domingue let in some softies in Game 5. Mike Sullivan isn't one to put the weight of a loss on any individual, though, and definitely not his goalie. "They (Rangers) pushed, we had a couple of extended D-zone shifts and we didn't get it done defensively," Sullivan told reporters, in response to the Penguins giving up 3 goals in fewer than 3 minutes toward the end of the second period. "We didn't win the wall battles. We didn't get pucks out, and as a result, we had four or five minutes of extended defensive-zone play. And we just simply have to do a better job there."
There's nothing but truth to Sullivan's words. After Crosby left the game with just under 7 minutes to go in the second period, the Penguins looked out of sorts and got put back on their heels.
On the Rangers' first goal of the game to cut the Penguins' lead in half, Adam Fox ripped a wrister upstairs from distance that Domingue would probably like to have back:
There's the wall battle reference from Sullivan, where Bryan Rust was unable to gain possession in the corner and the Penguins had to spend extra time in their zone. There's also Jeff Carter standing around without any clear defensive assignment, Kris Letang shading over to his partner's side of the ice and leaving the Rangers' net-front man wide-open to screen Domingue, as well as Jake Guentzel giving Fox far too much room to walk down and shoot.
All things that need to be cleaned up, but you'd still like to see Domingue come up with that one considering the distance it came from.
However, there wasn't much of anything he could do on the Rangers' second goal:
Danton Heinen elected to chase the Rangers' puck-carrier behind the Penguins' net to flush them out the other side, but John Marino converged on them as well, leaving the net-front skater wide-open as Marcus Pettersson was still returning to the area after pressuring his assignment in the corner.
There aren't many goalies stopping a cross-ice feed to an unmarked skater on the doorstep. Not that one, at least.
The Rangers' third goal was another example of some shoddy defensive work on the Penguins' end, and another example of one Domingue probably should have kept out of the net:
Mark Friedman has turned out to be a diamond in the rough for the Penguins, but here, we get a look at one of the drawbacks of defensemen playing on their weak-side. Because he's a right-handed shot playing on the left, his stick is positioned toward the middle of the ice, rather than along the boards. This can be a huge positive offensively, but can also cause problems breaking out of the zone. Friedman's attempt to rim the puck along the boards ended up hitting the referee and extending the Rangers' zone time due to the less than ideal angle of his stick.
The Rangers fired another shot seconds later to keep the Penguins running around. Then, the puck ended up on Trouba's stick at the point. He walked Carter like a dog to get to the middle of the ice with bodies in front as he slipped a backhander along the ice and through Domingue.
Letting the opposition get to the slot relatively uncontested isn't going to fly, but Domingue can't let a backhander that never left the ice -- from a defenseman, no less -- beat him. Tracking the puck through traffic seems to be a giant struggle of his.
The Penguins' skaters made another mistake on the Ranger's 4th goal, but this time, Domingue had a clear view of the shooter and couldn't square them up:
Short-handed, Brian Boyle took a tumble in the Rangers' zone, allowing them to transition 5-on-3 back to the Penguins' end. Upon entering the zone, both Evan Rodrigues and Chad Ruhwedel elected to step up on the Rangers' puck-carrier. That left the eventual goal-scorer all alone to blast a shot by Domingue.
Again, they obviously don't want to give up point-blank attempts, but they're going to need saves in big moments when they inevitably happen. Preferably before the lead has been blown:
Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin running into each other just about summed up the Penguins' performance after Crosby left the game. Domingue's save that immediately followed at least gave the Penguins a chance to claw back in it.
Domingue is 30 years old and has a .905 save percentage across 142 regular season games at the NHL level in his career. He has vastly exceeded expectations. It's just that those expectations were about as low as could be to begin with.
The exact timeline on Jarry's return remains unclear, but it can't come soon enough for the Penguins. Domingue is what he is: a fringe backup that can make some spot-starts if absolutely necessary. The Penguins will have to insulate him with near defensive-perfection while he remains the starter, unless they plan on dropping another 7-spot when they get back to Pittsburgh for Game 6 on Friday.