A scant three seasons ago, Louis Domingue was at the apex of his professional career. Serving as the backup netminder for a Tampa Bay team that piled up an astonishing 128 points, the then 26-year-old was a solid contributor, recording a sparkling 21-5 record.
Since then, his on-ice fortunes sagged along with his spirit as he bounced from team to team. Eight in all if you count his numerous stops in the AHL. After signing with the Pens this past summer, the St-Hyacinthe, Quebec native spoke openly of his struggles, including bouts of depression, before rediscovering his purpose and passion for the game.
After performing admirably for a less-than-stellar Baby Pens team (2.69 goals against average, .918 save percentage), Domingue was finally given an opportunity to backstop the big boys last night and made the most it.
“Ever since camp, I was prepared for this moment,” Domingue said after the game. “I saw an opportunity, you either take it or you don’t. I thought I was focused. It wasn’t hard tonight to stay focused. I play for the Penguins. It’s a privilege to play for this team and this organization.”
Subbing for all-star Tristan Jarry, Louis turned in a stellar performance, turning aside 40 of 41 shots to pace the Pens to a 2-1 overtime victory of the Sharks in San Jose they surely didn’t deserve but were thrilled to get. Outdueling fellow former Coyote and No. 3 star Adin Hill in the process and serving notice to incumbent backup Casey DeSmith that his job might not be secure.
There was nothing easy about Domingue’s night. The Sharks tested him right out of the chute, running up an early 7-1 edge in shots on goal and kept pouring it on (28-12 shots advantage after 40 minutes). But Domingue was superb. After yielding a goal to a wide-open Rudolfs Balcers at the seven-minute mark from point-blank range, he slammed the door. Giving his sleep-walking teammates a chance to regroup.
Kris Letang tied it for the black and gold at 10:56. Reading the play beautifully, the quicksilver defenseman jumped up to lead the rush. After taking a short pass from Jake Guentzel in the neutral zone, he burst past flatfooted Remi Elie at the San Jose line, cruised in on Hill and beat the Sharks’ netminder with a silky forehand-to-backhand move.
Aside from Domingue’s stellar goaltending, it was one of the few Pens positives over the first two periods. Indeed, our guys seemed to be suffering from the same malaise that afflicted them during the blowout loss to the Kings two nights earlier. Namely, sloppy, sluggish, disinterested play.
With a hideous Corsi of 18.18, the second line of Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter and Kasperi Kapanen was especially culpable.
I don’t know what was said in the locker room during the second intermission. But coach Mike Sullivan no doubt had a few choice words for his charges, some of the paint-peeling variety. He also shuffled his bottom three lines and appeared to hit on a winner with Radim Zohorna joining Malkin and Carter and later, Dominik Simon.
The PK helped turned things around as well. Killing off the remnants of a Guentzel high-sticking penalty early in the third, the Pens sprang to the attack, with Brock McGinn and Brian Boyle testing Hill on a couple of good chances. Holding a slight edge in third-period shots (14-13) we pushed the game to overtime.
From there our captain took over. Thirty-seven seconds into the extra stanza, Sidney Crosby gathered in a pass from Letang, cut diagonally across the slot to elude Brent Burns, and held, held, held the puck until Guentzel got into position for an easy goalmouth tap in.
Maybe Malkin summed it up best in the victorious locker room. “Not best game, but who cares? We have Louis.”
Indeed.
Puckpourri
The Sharks outshot the Pens, 41-27, and dominated the faceoff circle, winning 67 percent of the draws. They also held a stunning 47-21 advantage in scoring chances and 16-11 edge in high danger chances. But Domingue held serve to earn top star honors.
Letang didn’t receive a star, but should’ve. He was arguably our best player aside from Domingue. Tanger recorded a goal and an assist, unleashed a team-high five shots on goal, blocked a game-high six shots and finished plus-two, all in a tidy 24:48 of ice time. With 32 points in 33 games to go with a team-best plus-15, he’s quietly enjoying a brilliant season. Perhaps his best-ever.
Guentzel earned second-star honors thanks to an assist and the OT winner. Jake now has 19 goals and 37 points in 31 games. McGinn returned from Covid, bumping rookie Kasper Bjorkqvist to the press box. A vastly underrated cog in the Pens’ scheme…Pensburgh’s Hooks Orpik aptly described him as a “glue guy,”…Brock dished out four hits and logged 5:06 of shorthanded ice time.
The Pens (22-10-5, 49 points) currently occupy fourth place in the Metro, two points behind the Capitals and five points behind the division leading Rangers. On deck…we wrap up our six-game road trip in Vegas on Monday night.
Hey Rick,
Gv are an interesting stat and you know how I love stats. When I worked clinical, all I did was sift through stats.
First, I did not say Letang was a bum, I said he didn’t deserve a star of the game and I stand by it. No matter what he did in his first 32 Games this season or in any other season, it had no bearing on what he did last night. All I said was that no, Letang nor any Penguins Defenseman deserved a star of the game after getting murdered in the CORSI stats – they were all useless. Domingue saved all of their butts.
As for the Gv stat, alone it is as useful as CORSI alone. Now compare the Gv to the Tk. Looking at Letang’s Gv among D men over the last 3 seasons (3 seasons is the best way to keep it relevant to current conditions and it can be quickly accessed since Natural Stat Trick Likes to keep things to a 3 season rolling average). Over the last 3 Seasons 5 on 5 Letang’s Gv/60 is 2.52, 59th among D -Men. That isn’t bad. However, now look at it vs his Tk/60. That number is only 1.1. So he is at a fairly large negative in the Gv – Tk Differential. He Gv the puck away far more often than he gets it. Furthermore, his 1.1 Tk/60 is tied for 71st he doesn’t rank very high in either.
So, Letang has just been okay, not star worthy.
As for trying to poke the bear over Malkin, I do like Malkin, he has been the best Offensive force this team has had over the last 3 seasons. But if he wants out, as I wrote earlier, I can part with him. But before you throw away Malkin let’s look at him more closely. His Gv/60 is 3.56 is 4th worst among Forwards with over 200 minutes played. However, his Tk/60 is 3.84.
First of all that represents a plus on the Gv – Tk Differential unlike Letang who as a Negative. Malkin’s 3.84 is 2nd in the league in the Tk/60. Malkin wins the Gv Tk battle, Letang loses it.
Sid loses the Gv – Tk Differential as well 2.56 – 2.28. Rust is the only other Forward on the Penguins roster over the last 3 seasons to be in the negative 1.92 to 1.32
Trying to compare Letang to Malkin is like comparing Apples to Oranges. Letang is paid to prevent Goals, Malkin is paid to score them by definition of their positions, yet Malkin wins the Gv – Tk battle and scores more. Letang loses the Gv – Tk battle and scores less. I am hardly hypocritical here.
Furthermore, I have said that the sad part of the the Penguins D is that Letang is no longer the worst one back there.
Hey Rick,
A Couple of things,
Domingue did have a great game last night and stole that win for the Pens, but he hasn’t played admirably for WBS. There have been several games where he gave up 4ish G on 20 odd shots. He has been rather inconsistent. True, I would rather have him as back-up than DeSmith and he was the star of the game but let’s not jump any guns here. Goaltending has been WBS’ Achilles heel since Nov.
Have to disagree with you on Letang as well. He was typical Letang. He had some Offensive moments. His G was a thing of Beauty, but when a team gets out chanced 51-48, out unblocked shots 38-32, and out shot 36-17 and out HDC 12-9, no Defenseman really did his job. Because of the laxity in his D-game the only Penguin with a worse xGA was Dumoulin (1.44 vs 1.39) both of these guys need to buy Domingue a big fat steak dinner.
True enough the Carter – Malkin – Kapanen line had a horrendous CORSI but they only played 4:55 together. Guentzel-Crosby-Rodrigues CORSI of 47.06% in 15:25 and when you factor in their Perimeter play, the 2nd line of Carter – Malkin – Kapanen was only slightly lower than Guentzel-Crosby-Rodrigues when you looked at their Shot Diff. (20% to 26.67%) maybe had Sullivan shuffled the 1st line as well, the Pens may not have had to wait until OT to win. Only 4 of that 1st lines Shot Attempts (SA) made it on net, only 25%, while 11 of 18 opponent SA found their way on Goal or 61%. not a very good Defensive track record for the evening.
Conversely, that abbreviate 2nd Line of Carter – Malkin – Kapanen only let 4 of 9 of the SA against them or 44.4% on Goal.
Question: when will Sullivan acknowledge that his 1st line is unbalanced and fix it?
And don’t mistake my complaint about the first line as an endorsement of the 2nd line. I like Zohorna with Malkin.
The only reason Simon was on Malkin’s line was because of all the PK time Carter had to pull. Zohorna – Malkin – SImon only played 2 shifts for 1:37 TOI.
Most importantly, this game illustrates how poorly the Penguins play when you take away their time and space. San Jose’s Pnts% is only good enough for 20th in the league and they have given us fits in the 2 games against them because the get on us early and often physically.
Hey Other Rick.
Great game summary and I appreciate your comments. Don’t agree with them, but I appreciate them…lol.
But seriously, I totally disagree with your take on Letang. And this is from someone who used to tear his hair out watching him play and used to complain about him as long and loud as you and Mike. I think he’s really matured in the past couple of seasons but especially this year. He’s playing a lot more within himself. His giveaways, which were never that egregious given the type of player he is, are at a manageable rate of a little less than one per game. He’s 21st in the league among defensemen, 16 behind league leader Aaron Ekblad (45-29). And he’s way down the ladder (71st) among d-men in giveaways per 60 minutes (minimum 10 games played). I’ll take that any day for a player of his ilk.
I especially like his work on the power play. In the past, I never thought he was an especially good puck distributor. He seemed more interested in shooting the puck…generally into a defender’s shin pads. But he’s been much more patient with the puck and is taking what opponents are giving him instead of trying to force the issue. The result is some nice, simple setups…especially for Evan Rodrigues in the left circle.
I’m also going to push back at you about your favorite, Malkin. It seems the things you complain about in Letang you tend to overlook in Geno. The undisciplined play, for one. Going back to 2013-14, Malkin is eighth among NHL forwards in giveaways/60 minutes (3.11) for those who played in at least 100 games. By comparison, Phil Kessel is 44th and Sidney Crosby in 48th.
Now, to put that in perspective, you live with that because Geno’s such an amazing player (fourth in the NHL in points per game over that span…FYI Sid is second). Oh…Letang is third in points/game for defensemen during that period, behind only Cale Makar and Erik Karlsson.
I think it’s time to give Tanger a little due and a little love.
Okay, the bear’s been poked … 🙂
Rick
Hey guys….Can I poke the both of you? haha
First, point being, if we had a team with a decent defense and a Coach that truly appreciated defensive hockey then you would not have to have the back up to the back up goalie save the day. We were darn lucky to win that game and we certainly did not out play anyone. That is the real concern.
Secondly,why of why are we always defending Letang. He is playing better than he used to ?? When faced with play off style pressure we have trouble getting the puck out of our own end .Case in point the last Kings game.
I see this as a disaster in the making. We rely way to much on him and serious flaws remain.
Plus my main concern for Letang is he has had WAY to many concussions over the years and if he gets hammered once again, it could not only end his career but severely destroy his quality of life in retirement. Many injured NHL players end up living in nursing homes with serious head trauma issues. Not a pretty site.
Thirdly, Geno has some other issues. He too turns over the puck and tends not to play a complete 200ft game.
How will he adapt to the Current pens system ? I wish I could be sure…
There is my poke at you two…haha
Great to be Pen’s fans.
We get to complain about our team and then something unexpected always happens….
Cheers
Hello my friend. Pokes well taken … 🙂
I’m going to stand by what I wrote about Letang. However, I do agree with one point you made…that we rely on him perhaps too heavily. Case in point. He missed three games at the end of October. We lost each of those games (all on home ice) by a combined score of 13-3 to Tampa Bay, Calgary and New Jersey. Arguably our worst stretch of the season. Our defense and transition game was a complete shambles without him.
Agree about Malkin’s defensive deficiencies. But he’s still a marvelous player and the closest I’ve seen to Mario when he’s on.
A shame about so many former NHLers winding up in nursing homes due to head trauma. Go back and watch clips of games from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, and it’s wonder more guys didn’t get seriously hurt. I’ve always enjoyed the physical aspect of hockey and the occasional fight, but it’s a good thing that overly aggressive play is on the wane.
Rick
Hey Jim,
Agree 100% with what you say about the Back-Up Goalie situation, the Defense and Letang. The real problem with Letang right now is that unfortunately, the team has let that position deteriorate to such a pathetic state that he is the best RHD the team has right now. Quick little ditty. I have 4 degrees, The 2 I use now are in Physiology, but I also have a degree in Architecture. While plying my trade in Architecture, there was a client that was constantly complaining about minutia during the planning phase, so much so, the job has dragged on longer than any of us wanted. So, we built him a model and painted it the ugliest yellow – green we could find. To which the client was willing to settle for anything else we did just as long as we would not use that hideous paint. Sullivan has done that with his RHD, actually his D as a whole. It is so pathetic that Letang doesn’t look that bad.
The worst of it is, even Letang’s defenders aren’t hearing what they are saying and putting it in context. Yes, Rick B. Letang is playing the best of his career, but the best of his career is only above 3rd paring and PP unit.
As for Geno, my friend. I have most recently said that I would never confuse Malkin with a Selke trophy candidate. I don’t think he is a defensive stalwart. However, he doesn’t get paid to be a defensive Center. He gets paid to be an offensive force and that is what he does. He has been the 2nd best offensive Center in Penguins history, only behind Mario, 3rd best offensive force only behind Mario and Jagr. Even at his current age he checkes in at 3rd among Forwards in 5 on 5 Pnts/60 over the last 3 seasons.
As for fitting in the “system”, the system is broke. The “system” has only worked in the regular season and failed in the playoffs. It isn’t Malkin that needs to be dumped, it is the “system”. The “system” has prematurely aged both Crosby and Malkin. The “system” more than any player, closed the window.
If Malkin wants to stay he will be a better option for the playoffs. If he wants to resign a team friendly deal, then he will be a better option than just about anything that appears on the market. If he wants traded and wants to go to Fla, fine, get Anton Lundell for him.
Great points Coach.
Thanks for the reply.
Jim
Thanks Rick for the gracious reply. I can see why you feel the way you do and I can not find fault in any of your points. We all want to keep the CORE together and let them retire as a Penguin, but i read just the other day about Marc-Andre Fleury and he may be traded once more. He above all else was the start of the Core . The number one drafted Goalie whom the Pen’s built their franchise around.He too took less money than his true market value to help his friend Mario keep the team alive during the early years. What happened ?
He was traded and his generosity to give the team a discount for his true value was never appreciated.
So for me Rick once you traded Fleury then Letang and Malkin became expendable as you already set a precedent with Fleury.