The Pittsburgh Penguins are expected to start goaltender Casey DeSmith in Tuesday’s home game against the Edmonton Oilers.
In 24 games this season, DeSmith has a 10-5-5 record, a 2.72 goals-against average, a .915 save percentage and three shutouts.
Aside from the Penguins, the Oilers are the only NHL franchise DeSmith never has faced in his career.
Notes:
• The Penguins’ lines and pairs during Tuesday’s morning skate were:
59 Jake Guentzel – 87 Sidney Crosby – 17 Bryan Rust
23 Brock McGinn – 71 Evgeni Malkin – 67 Rickard Rakell
16 Jason Zucker – 77 Jeff Carter – 42 Kasperi Kapanen
43 Danton Heinen – 53 Teddy Blueger – 9 Evan Rodrigues
8 Brian Dumoulin – 58 Kris Letang
5 Mike Matheson – 2 Chad Ruhwedel
28 Marcus Pettersson – 6 John Marino
• The top power-play unit included Crosby, Guentzel, Letang, Malkin and Rust. The second power-play unit involved Carter, Kapanen, Matheson, Rakell and Zucker.
• The Oilers are expected to start goaltender Mike Smith. In 27 games this season, Smith has a 15-9-2 record, a 2.88 GAA, a .913 save percentage and two shutouts.
In 20 career games against the Penguins, Smith has a 9-10-0 record, a 2.75 GAA, a .911 save percentage and two shutouts.
• Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard is slated to play in his 100th career game.
The Oilers have not had a regulation win in Pittsburgh since Penguins forward Sidney Crosby’s rookie season when they claimed a 3-1 victory at the Mellon Arena on Jan. 10, 2006.
That game was far more renowned for the postgame remarks of former coach Michel Therrien:
