North of the Border DeBacle: Senators Wallop Penguins, DeSmith

Following an encouraging string of four solid games, the tires blew out on our Penguins north of the border last night. The Ottawa Senators, losers of four straight entering the game and sans no fewer than a Penguin-esque nine players due to Covid and injuries, strafed the black and gold for four second-period goals en route to a lopsided 6-3 triumph.

At the eye of the DeBacle? Pens goalie Casey DeSmith. Making only his third start of the season, Casey yielded five goals on 23 shots for an unsightly .783 save percentage. The Pens’ heretofore airtight PK unit was shredded as well to the tune of two power play goals on three opportunities.

While it’s tempting to lay the blame for the loss solely at DeSmith’s feet, truth of the matter is the embattled netminder had plenty of…uh…help. On the Sens’ first goal five minutes into the second period, Kris Letang got turned the wrong way, allowing Zach Sanford a second-chance opportunity from point-blank range.

Sanford took away DeSmith’s eyes on Ottawa’s second goal, Michael Del Zotto’s innocuous mid-period power-play wrister from the right point. The Sens outworked the Pens’ top tandem of Letang and Mike Matheson down low on the third goal, an easy peasy net-front tap-in by rookie Parker Kelly with DeSmith sprawled on the ice.

The fifth Ottawa goal, a third-period strike by Drake Batherson off a 2-on-1, resulted from in part from an ill-advised pinch by John Marino, compounded by No. 6’s rather leisurely “effort” to get back into the play.

In other words, the Pens hung Casey out to dry like bed linen on Sunday for a good portion of the evening. The only goal I really fault him on was the fourth…he was way out of position on Tim Stutzle’s wrister from the left dot.

Having said that, would it shock me if Louis Domingue, called up to serve as backup for the game, stayed with the team while DeSmith took a sabbatical to northeastern Pennsylvania?

No.

In the numbers racket, Domingue has a 2.43 goals against average and .921 save percentage for the Baby Pens, versus DeSmith’s porous 4.72 and .856 for the Pens. Too, there’s Domingue’s 6’3”, 208 pound-dimensions to consider versus Casey’s (generously listed at 6’0” 181). Louis simply fills more net.

If there’s a sliver of silver lining, we may have lost the game (and a backup goalie) but gained a hockey player. Centering the second line between Jason Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen, Evan Rodrigues continues to emerge as perhaps the most pleasant surprise of an otherwise checkered season.

E-Rod tallied two goals, both from long range but goals nonetheless, and assisted on the other, almost single-handedly igniting the Pens’ aborted third-period comeback. He also won 55 percent of his faceoffs while earning the game’s second star. The Toronto native presently paces the club with six goals and 11 points in 13 games

To digress, a tip of the hat to PenguinPoop contributor Caleb D’Natale, who insisted we’d unearthed a diamond in the rough when we signed Rodrigues, an assessment that was greeted with skepticism from me and Other Rick.

I’ll toss coach Mike Sullivan in there, too. During an episode of Inside Penguins Hockey he insisted E-Rod would “score a lot of goals” for us.

Looks like they were right.

I’ll expand my praise to include E-Rod’s entire line. Indeed, the Zucker-Rodrigues-Kapanen trio has displayed tremendous chemistry. Heading into last night’s contest they led all NHL lines in Expected Goals For Percentage. Over the past four games they’ve struck for seven of the team’s 11 goals and piled up 14 points in total.

They were dominant against the Sens, registering 19 Corsi Events For and only 5 against.

Puckpourri

The Pens outshot the Sens, 31-24, but lost the faceoff battle (48 percent). They were outhit, 30-16. Speaking of, it may come as a surprise that our lightweight bunch is fifth in the league in hits (382) and fourth in average hits/60 minutes (28.52).

On an individual level, Zach Aston-Reese leads the club with 49 hits, seventh most in the league and eight behind former teammate Brandon Tanev. Anaheim’s Nicolas Deslauriers, rumored to be a trade target last season, leads the NHL with 64.

Brian Boyle’s line broke even in Corsi at 50 percent. The Jeff Carter (38.89) and Teddy Blueger lines were under water (46.15). Defensively, the Juuso Riikola–Mark Friedman tandem was swimming with the fishes as well, in Godfather parlance. However, they also were a combined plus-one, with an assist (Friedman’s) and five hits.

Blueger, Marino and Danton Heinen finished a minus-two. The rudderless power play went 0-for-4. We’re dead last in the league at 9.1 percent.

The Pens (5-4-4, 14 points) are presently tied for sixth place in the Metro with Columbus. Our boys have precious little time to reset. We face Washington at Capital One Arena tonight.