It was just about a month ago when Mike Sullivan was asked for his assessment of Casey DeSmith's play in net this season.
"Probably similar to what our team has been," Sullivan said. "Volatility. He's had moments when he's been really strong and given us a chance to win, and then others where you'd like him to bring a little more consistency to his game."
DeSmith's play during Tristan Jarry's recent two injuries -- the lower-body injury suffered on Jan. 2 and then the upper-body injury that sidelined him on Jan 24 -- has mostly been the latter of the two: You'd like him to bring a little more consistency.
Throughout the month of January DeSmith went 3-4-2 with an .887 save percentage and a 3.82 goals-against average. He had allowed 18 goals in just his last four starts before the All-Star break. If anyone could have benefited from the "reset" the break brings, it was him.
The break seemed to do well for DeSmith, who was the No. 2 star with 41 saves on 42 shots in the Penguins' 2-1 overtime win over the Avalanche on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena . Kris Letang rightfully earned No. 1 star honors for his game-winning goal in the extra frame, but it was DeSmith's strong play for the first 63 minutes that kept the Penguins in the game to that point.
The Penguins certainly put DeSmith to work early -- this game could have easily gotten out of hand in the first 20 minutes had DeSmith not been locked in -- the Avalanche outshot the Penguins 13-6 in the first period alone, but the score remained 0-0 at first intermission after a series of strong saves from DeSmith.
"I thought they came hard," DeSmith said of the Avalanche. "I thought they were getting some chances off the rush for sure early. I thought as the game went on we did a good job of adjusting."
While the Penguins started to get their own share of chances as the game went on, the Avalanche kept firing from the high-danger areas of the ice all night -- they recorded 19 high-danger attempts to the Penguins' 13, with a 17-9 lead when at five-on-five. The heat map shows where the Avalanche's shots were coming from, and just how heavily DeSmith was peppered from the slot:
Those areas have been a source of weakness for DeSmith this season. This chart shows where goals have come on DeSmith this season (separated by shot type), with red areas showing areas where he's more likely than league average to let in a goal, and blue less likely. At some parts of the slot on wrist shots, he's more than 10% likely to allow a goal than the average goaltender:
It didn't matter where the Avalanche were shooting from tonight, they weren't going in. The only shot that beat DeSmith was a wrister from the slot by Nathan MacKinnon, who looked like he was playing the game with cheat codes all night. He recorded an absurd eight shots on goal on 19 shot attempts, and the one that finally beat DeSmith wasn't a soft goal by any means:
DeSmith was a steady presence in net all night. The Avalanche looked like they could run away with the game early, but DeSmith held the fort down until the Penguins were able to pick up some momentum and get into the game. When it finally looked like the Avalanche might have a chance to seal the win with a 4-on-3 power play in overtime, DeSmith stopped all three shots on goal he faced on the penalty kill before Letang scored the game-winner shortly after returning to full strength.
"He held us in there early in the game when we were getting outplayed," Sullivan said. "He made some big saves for us. When you watch the nature of how games are played in this league, in my mind, it's so much about momentum. When you don't have it, a lot of times, it's a big save or a key save at a key time that helps teams find their legs or find their game, so to speak. I think that's what great goaltending provides for teams. A lot of times it's those big saves that give teams an opportunity to win. Case certainly did that for us tonight."
DeSmith is feeling good about his game coming out of the break. He's confident, something that's eluded him during some of those tougher stretches earlier in the season. It's his net until Jarry comes back, which shouldn't be too far off after Jarry returned to the Penguins' morning skate on Tuesday. If DeSmith can keep playing like this on this upcoming California road trip, the Penguins are in good hands until Jarry returns.
"I feel like I'm seeing the puck well," DeSmith said. "I feel like I'm feeling more and more comfortable as the games go by. I'm just happy to get wins at this point."