3 Things: DeSmith Update, Goalie Talk and More
1. DeSmith update
Goaltender Casey DeSmith was absent from Pens practice after missing Sunday's 6-3 win over Washington with a non-COVID-related illness.
"Casey DeSmith still isn't feeling well," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "So we chose to keep him away from the rink and away from the team at this point, and we'll update you each day here with respect to Casey."
All expected players were on the ice, including defenseman Marcus Pettersson, who has missed the last nine games with an upper-body injury. He has been practicing with the team since Feb. 10 and continues to progress.
"He participated in a full capacity today with full contact, and so that's encouraging from his standpoint," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said that all of the other injured players - defensemen Brian Dumoulin (lower-body) and Juuso Riikola (upper-body) and forwards Evan Rodrigues (lower-body) and Jared McCann (lower-body) - are status quo.
2. Jarry talks confidence; Lagace on practicing
Sullivan and the players were incredibly complimentary of Tristan Jarry's performance yesterday against the Capitals. In his first career start against the Capitals, the netminder made 28 saves to earn his first win since Jan. 24 against the NY Rangers and improve to 3-4-1 on the year.
When discussing Jarry's play, Sullivan said he made big stops to keep the Penguins in it during the second period, and again in the third while they were protecting a lead. He felt that Jarry - who has his ups and downs through the early part of this season, his first as Pittsburgh's starting goalie - took a big step and that he should gain some confidence from the game.
Jarry agreed with that assessment when speaking with the media after Monday's practice.
"You want to win every game and you want to stop every puck, so I think everyone's hard on themselves," Jarry, 25, said. "They want to make good plays and they want to be a difference-maker. And when I'm in net I want to be a difference, I want to help team as much as possible. So, I think everyone's hard on themselves in that sense, and it's tough to get momentum sometimes. So you just have to keep working and I think last night's game was a good confidence builder for me."
He was backed up by goaltender Maxime Lagace, who got a text saying that DeSmith would be unavailable for the game that afternoon when he was driving back to his residence after skating with the taxi squad that morning.
"So I went home, ate, and left right away after," Lagace said. "It was a quick turnaround, but I was obviously happy about it."
Lagace then practiced with the Penguins this A.M., which was a big change of pace - literally - from the taxi squad sessions, as there are usually only around 2-4 skaters for him and Alex D'Orio to go up against.
"I think Max did a good job," Sullivan said before adding with a smile, "I heard him talking to (goalie coach Mike Buckley) saying he's not used to being involved with a practice with that type of pace and that type of intensity. That's the adjustment when you're on the ice with NHL players and some of the best players in the game at that. I'm sure it was a little bit of an eye opener for him, but I thought he did a real good job."
Lagace, 27, signed with the Penguins this offseason after spending the 2019-20 campaign with Providence of the American Hockey League, appearing in 33 games. He helped the Bruins to the second-best record in the AHL, going 22-7-3 with a 2.37 goals-against average, a .919 save percentage and five shutouts.
Overall, Lagace has played six seasons at the AHL level along with 17 games of NHL experience, all with the Vegas Golden Knights from 2017-19.
"It was a great time," Lagace said. "I learned a lot from the experience about myself as a goalie, so that made me go into the goalie I am now. I've been in this position before, and I know what to kind of expect or not expect. It's just stay ready, work hard. And that's how I've been my whole career. So, it's going to stay that way. Just work hard and wait for the opportunity, and I'll be ready whenever it comes."
3. In Rust we trust
Bryan Rust was named the NHL's Third Star for the week ending Feb. 14 after producing three goals and five points in two games.
The 28-year-old winger has been solid all season, as Rust is tied for the team lead in goals (5) and paces the Penguins in assists (8) and points (13) through the first 13 games.
But he's taken things to another level ever since Sullivan reunited him with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel after Evan Rodrigues left in the second period of Pittsburgh's 3-2 win over the Rangers on Jan. 24, as has that line in general.
"Rusty has played a fair amount with Sid in the past," Sullivan said. "He's done the same with Geno. We know he's capable of playing with either one of those guys, and depending on the circumstance surrounding our team, we try to make the best decisions for the group. And so obviously when we made that decision, we won that game if my memory serves me well, and they were a big part of it. Sid's line has been dominant fairly consistently."
The Penguins used the following workflow…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Kapanen
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Tanev
Sceviour-Jankowski-Lafferty
O'Connor
Joseph-Letang
Matheson-Marino
Pettersson-Ceci
Ruhwedel-Weber
