Penguins to start goaltender Casey DeSmith against Oilers
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:
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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