The Penguins' next game is Tuesday night in Detroit.
And their starting goaltender, presuming both are healthy, will be ... well, let's just say Mike Sullivan didn't exactly quash any potential intrigue on that front with his response following Casey DeSmith's feisty 31-save effort in the 4-3 victory over the Capitals on this Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.
Asked if he's tempted to give the net right back to DeSmith against the Red Wings, rather than Tristan Jarry, who was deemed healthy enough after his latest injury to be the backup in this one, Sullivan replied, "Well, we'll see. Case has played really well for us, and he made some big saves tonight, especially in the first couple periods. I thought he was dynamite. He made some big saves to give us a chance to keep the lead and build on the lead. So, we'll make those decisions accordingly, game-to-game. We'll see how Jars responds here. But, without a doubt, I think Casey is making a strong case for himself. He's playing extremely well."
A strong case ... for what?
I mean, there's no other way to interpret that he's referencing more than the next game, right?
Jarry hasn't played the past two games because of what the team's calling a lower-body injury. It's unclear when an injury might've occurred, since he started this past Wednesday in Denver -- 28 saves in a 5-2 victory over the Avalanche -- then saw no other action, even practice, before his status changed the next afternoon. He didn't dress for the game that night in Dallas, and he didn't return to the ice until partaking in the morning skate on this day, though only after a pre-skate session with goaltending coach Andy Chiodo.
The degree to which he might or might not still be hurt isn't known outside the team, but the medical staff cleared him to be DeSmith's backup in this game, and he showed no unusual signs in taking shots in the pregame warmups.
As for DeSmith, there was this:
And there was this, too:
And there were a bunch of others amid the Capitals' 34 shots, 20 of which were classified high-danger chances.
None were more dangerous than the two above, both in the second period, the first a lateral slide to stop a John Carlson mega-blast on a two-on-one, the second a clean breakaway for Alexander Ovechkin, who'll soon be crowned the greatest goal-scorer in NHL history. That's all.
"I was kind of reading shot, considering how close the backchecker was," DeSmith recalled, referring to P.O Joseph on Ovechkin's tail. "He did a little pump-fake there and got me down. My leg was just long enough -- I'm not very tall -- but I had that one inch that I needed."
And amid all this, DeSmith was hearing chants of 'CA-SEY! CA-SEY!' from the capacity crowd of 18,456, a rarity in this place for either goaltender all season, which prompted me to ask:
"Yeah, really cool," he replied. "I mean, that's the joy of playing at home and having great fans. It makes it just that much more special to play."
At which point he thanked me for asking that, which was hilarious.
Now, mind you, all of this soured in the third period, in which the Capitals converted on three of their 11 shots, so it wasn't all sunshine.
“Obviously would've liked to make it a little cleaner in the third there, but that’s why you have star players," DeSmith would say, referring to Evgeni Malkin's late winner. "Geno makes a huge play there for us. More exciting for the fans that way, but I guess I would do without that next time.”
Asked if he'd like to make the starting goaltender a difficult decision for Sullivan and staff, DeSmith flatly replied, "Yeah, I always want to play. It's no secret that every person in this league wants to play as much as they can, and I'm no different. Obviously, it's their decision. Obviously, I just want them to win. So, yeah, we'll see."
Maybe very soon.