Penguins to start goaltender Casey DeSmith against Capitals
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan professes his primary consideration in crafting a lineup for any game is to dress the players he believes will give his team the best chance to win.
For Sunday’s home opener at PPG Paints Arena against the rival Washington Capitals, backup goaltender Casey DeSmith will be part of that alchemy.
DeSmith will make his first start of the season while top goaltender Tristan Jarry will serve as the backup.
During Friday’s 5-2 road loss to the Flyers, DeSmith took over for Jarry 11 minutes, 30 seconds into the contest after Jarry allowed three goals on six shots. DeSmith was sturdy in the relief appearance as he made 12 saves on 13 shots.
In two games this season, Jarry is 0-2-0 with a 7.57 goals-against average and .727 save percentage.
During practice in Cranberry on Saturday, DeSmith faced shots from the top power-play unit while Jarry worked with the second unit.
Following that practice, Sullivan spoke about Jarry’s struggles.
“He just has to focus on the things that he can control,” Sullivan said. “That’s his effort, his attitude, his worth ethic, his approach, his confidence level, all of those things. We all believe in Tristan. We know he’s a good goalie. He’s going to have an opportunity here to respond and we believe he’ll respond the right way. He’ll work with (goaltending coach Mike Buckley) along the way here to make sure from a fundamental standpoint that his fundamentals are where they need to be in order to give himself a chance to be successful when the puck drops in games.
“Tristan is a good goalie. We know that. We believe in him. This is a long season and we’ll just continue to work through the process with him.”
DeSmith’s last start at the NHL level came in a 5-0 road win against the Buffalo Sabres, March 14, 2019. He made 26 saves in that shutout.
Notes:
• Sullivan said forward Kasperi Kapanen passed his final test for the NHL’s coronavirus protocol and is ready to join the team. He will not play in Sunday’s game, however, as he has not yet practiced with the team since arriving in Pittsburgh on Jan. 9.
A native of Finland, Kapanen was not able to secure a work visa to enter the U.S. and join the team for training camp in a timely fashion. Once he did enter the country, he had to undergo an NHL-mandated seven-day quarantine that involved several tests.
Sullivan indicated Kapanen did skate Sunday morning.
Kapanen recently told Yle Uutiset, a Finnish news outlet, that he applied for the visa in October but it was not processed until the second week of January.
• This will be the Penguins’ first game in the confines of PPG Paints Arena since they were defeated by the Carolina Hurricanes, 6-2, on March 8.
• A familiar face will be making his season debut for the Capitals today. Former Penguins forward Daniel Sprong is expected to dress in place of Conor Sheary, another former Penguins forward. Sprong, 23, was the Penguins’ second-round pick in 2015 and played parts of three seasons at the NHL level for the team before being traded in December of 2018 to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for defenseman Marcus Pettersson.
• The Capitals are expected to start Ilya Samsonov in net. In one game this season, he has a 1-0-0 record with a 4.00 goals-against average and .846 save percentage.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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