52-Save Shutout

Pittsburgh's goaltending has been the main storyline over the past week, and understandably so, as All-Star netminder Tristan Jarry is week-to-week with a lower-body injury with the playoffs fast approaching.
But the Penguins have repeatedly expressed their faith in Casey DeSmith, who is handling starting duties for the foreseeable future. And tonight, against Boston, he showed exactly why his coach and teammates have been singing his praises.

He made a career-high 52 saves to backstop Pittsburgh to a 4-0 shutout win over the Bruins, which keeps the Penguins in third place in the Metro Division, with Washington two points behind in the second Wild Card spot.
"Casey was unbelievable tonight," winger Jason Zucker said. "He was calm, and it's easy to play in front of him when he's playing like that. He made a lot of great plays, shooting pucks out, playing the puck behind the net. He was definitely our All-Star tonight, for sure."
Pittsburgh's current No. 1 goalie was the No. 2 Star in a game for the record books, as only four goaltenders in NHL history have made more saves in a shutout than DeSmith: Ben Scrivens (59 saves, 01/29/14), Mike Smith (54 saves, 4/3/12), Semyon Varlamov (54 saves, 1/6/15) and Craig Anderson (53 saves, 3/2/08).
"Obviously a 52-save shutout always builds the confidence a little bit. But coming into this game, I felt like I was prepared," DeSmith said. "I've been working for this moment for a long time, to step in there in case something happened to Jars, and I'm just happy to help the team get some wins."

The Penguins obviously had a lot of strong stretches, which resulted in the victory, but the Bruins had some REALLY strong stretches. Particularly at the start of the second, where they outshot Pittsburgh 10-0 (!) at one point, and at points in the third, where they had a 22-7 edge on the clock.
"They're a great team," Zucker said. "They're a great team, they have great talent, and players. They're a fast team, they make quick plays. It's one of those things that sometimes you can get on your heels, but you have to try weather the storm as much as possible. And that's when we lean on Casey and our D-men to make great plays."
The 30-year-old netminder turned aside everything he saw, along with everything he didn'tsee - and that's what he'll hang his hat on from this performance.
"I was happy with how I tracked the puck through traffic," DeSmith said. "Obviously they got a lot of pucks through, but they get a lot of bodies to the net. I thought my rebound control was good, too. So just kind of managing the traffic in the game and all the pucks that were thrown on net."
Yesterday, Jeff Carter referenced how hard DeSmith has worked to round his game out on what has been a rollercoaster ride of a season, with his
toughest stretch coming back in January
after getting pulled in back-to-back games.
"Every player has ups and downs in their career. That was probably the lowest that I've been in the NHL," DeSmith said. "Just tried to get back to the basics, you know? Working on my game, working on the details of my game, working hard in practice. Just the things that got me here, just kind of getting back to my roots and working hard on those things."
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has repeatedly cautioned us not to get ahead of ourselves, that there's still a few games remaining in the regular season (four after tonight), that Jarry is going through a rehab process right now and they're not sure what the future is going to look like.
But regardless of what happens, DeSmith's approach isn't going to change - just give the team a chance to win whenever he gets the nod.
"I'm just taking it game by game," DeSmith said. "Show up to the rink, practice hard and then if I'm called upon for the rest of the regular season, whenever I'm called upon, just go out there and play."