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Penguin substitute goalkeeper Casey DeSmith is in on the Sunday morning before his team’s opening game against the New York Islanders did not skate in the PPG Paints Arena.
After an unknown injury sustained on May 3, he is out « day in and day out, » according to coach Mike Sullivan, who has not finally excluded DeSmith from the line-up.
Should DeSmith fail to get dressed, reserve goalkeeper Maxime Lagace is expected to replace starter Tristan Jarry.
• Sullivan declined to hear any details on the status of striker Evgeni Malkin, explaining his entire line-up as a « game-time decision ». Malkin is believed to suffer from a right knee injury that recently sidelined him for 23 games. While practicing on Saturday, he did not take part in line rushes or power play exercises.
• Striker Brandon Tanev was activated from reserve for long-term injuries on Saturday. He has not played since April 3 due to an unknown injury.
Assuming Tanev is on the line-up on Sunday, his mix of speed and stubborn control will be welcomed by his team:
« (Tanev) is an important player for us, » said Sullivan via videoconference on Sunday morning. « He just brings so much energy with him, he brings a physical dimension, he brings another element of speed into our game, be it on the foredeck or on the penalty shootout or something like that. » He’s just a really effective player for us, he’s an important player for us to try and establish the kind of game that we want to play consistently. And its energy is contagious. He is a popular teammate. I know our players, when he’s in our locker room and sitting on our bench, he just puts so much juice into the environment. He is a passionate guy and brings a lot of energy to our group.
• The penguins called back the goalkeeper Alex D’Orio from Wilkes-Barre / Scranton of the American Hockey League (AHL). In 11 AHL games this season, D’Orio had a 6-3-1 record, 2.18 goals against the average and savings of 0.915 percent.
• Jarry is expected to start his second career postseason game. In the past regular season he appeared in 39 games, had a 25-9-3 record, 2.75 goals against the average, a saving of 0.909 percent and two failures.
• The islanders are expected to start goalkeeper Semyon Varlamov. In 36 games that regular season, Varlamov had a 19-11-4 record, 2.04 goals against average, 0.929 percent savings and seven league-leading shutouts.
While Varlamov had a good regular season overall, he largely fought the Penguins. In seven competitions against the penguins, Varlamov was 1-3-2 with 2.86 goals against the average and a saving of 0.897 percent.
Seth Rorabaugh is a contributor to the Tribune Review. You can contact Seth by email at [email protected] or on Twitter.
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