Penguins, DeSmith Implode in 5-4 Loss to Islanders

Back in the early 2000s there was a netminder named Roman Cechmanek whose puck-stopping was so erratic he was dubbed the “Bipolar Goaler.”

Well, Cechmanek has nothing on our Casey DeSmith. In his latest in a seemingly unending string of on-again, off-again performances, Casey was off again last night.

Very off.

Three nights after stealing a victory at San Jose almost single-handed, DeSmith made like a sieve in our disturbing 5-4 come-from-in-front loss to the Islanders on Long Island.

Casey giveth. And Casey taketh away.

I won’t mince words. DeSmith lost that game, plain and simple, yielding a succession of soul-crushing goals that undermined arguably one of the best black-and-gold performances of the campaign.

In the end we simply couldn’t outscore what Casey was letting in.

A shame, because for 40 minutes we dominated our Metro rivals to the tune of a stunning 37-18 edge in shots on goal. Make that 39:32. Because 28 seconds before the second intermission horn a deflection by Anders Lee glanced off DeSmith’s left pad and went in. Cutting our hard-earned lead to 4-3 and killing our momentum in the process. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Opening the game in top gear, we swarmed the Islanders, who appeared to be skating in quicksand. Indeed, we executed coach Mike Sullivan’s preferred puck-possession game to near-perfection. Making like a fox in a hen house, Sidney Crosby burrowed in and plucked a loose puck from under a roosting Ilya Sorokin at the 12-minute mark and poked the biscuit home to stake us to a 1-0 lead.

Lee returned the favor with an equally odd goal minutes later. Following a ghastly dead-fish giveaway by Marcus Pettersson, DeSmith stopped Lee’s initial attempt but lost track of the puck. Thinking the rubber might be beneath him, Casey lie supine on his back. Alas, the puck was sitting atop his…uh…midsection, a fact that didn’t escape Lee. Using the backhanded sand wedge approach, the Isles captain played the lie and swept the puck into a yawning net to knot the score.

For the record, this was all on Pettersson, who’s made his share of bungles of late.

Unfazed, the Pens regained the lead at 3:53 of the second period thanks to a tic-tac-toe sequence of razor-sharp passes from Kris Letang to Jake Guentzel to Rickard Rakell, culminating in the silky Swede’s 20^th goal of the campaign.

Jason Zucker widened our lead to 3-1 at 5:35 with a handsy deflection of a long-range lob from Pierre-Olivier Joseph. In complete command, we rolled up an early 9-1 edge in second-period shots. It seemed we could do no wrong and the Isles could do no right.

Our momentum was derailed, but only slightly, when Joseph took a holding-the-stick penalty mid-period. Our penalty killers snuffed out the vaunted Isles power play and we once again picked up the pace.

Then DeSmith devolved.

At 14:25, he overplayed a swooping Brock Nelson to the short side, hooking his skate on the post and losing his net in the process. He couldn’t recover in time to prevent a wraparound goal and, suddenly, it’s 3-2.

No worries. With 63 ticks left in the frame Crosby outworked the Isles’ defense down low and slipped one of those incredible, seeing-eye backhand passes through traffic to Rakell, who restored our-two goal lead.

Then came Lee’s last-minute game changer.

As much as I wanted to stay positive, I knew this wasn’t going to end well. Sure enough, while working on a power play Nelson beat DeSmith clean with an uncontested slapper from the top of the right circle at 5:01 of the third, knotting the score at 4-all.

With 2:43 remaining, Zach Parise bulled through a check by Bryan Rust and knocked the puck past a lunging and out-of-position DeSmith for the backbreaker.

I’m sure no one feels worse about the loss than Casey. In fairness to him, this was his eighth-straight start. He simply isn’t cut out for this kind of duty. But his run needs to end.

We need Tristan Jarry. Don’t care if he’s 90 percent healthy or 92 percent healthy. We need him…NOW.

Puckpourri

The Pens dominated statistically. We held the high ground in shot attempts (80-47), shots on goal (44-28), scoring chances (34-23) and high-danger chances (19-16). Everywhere but on the scoreboard.

DeSmith was dreadful (.821 save percentage) but he had “help.” Defensive-zone coverage on both Lee goals was terrible. On the Lee deflection, Jeff Carter lost his stick and his man, Matt Barzal, allowing the skilled Isles forward a clean shot at the net.

It begs the question…how long is Sullivan going to keep playing Carter?

Speaking of, the wayward third line was a collective minus-7, with Kasperi Kapanen leading the millstone procession at minus-3. The Pettersson-Jeff Petry tandem was sluggish and far from stellar. Joseph collected a pair of assists but also took two pudding-soft penalties…the tripping call in the third period cost us.

On the positive side of the ledger, Crosby (a goal and a helper) continues to play like a man possessed, as if he’s trying to drag us to a Cup. Wish he had more help. Hudson Fasching sent Sid flying with a forceful hit in the second period. Again, his teammates seemed oblivious.

Rakell scored two goals and was a plus-3. GM Ron Hextall’s made some clunker moves, but acquiring the talented winger (and retaining him)? Pure gold.

Like his partner POJ, Chad Ruhwedel collected two assists and finished a plus-2.

Possession-wise, all four lines were above the break-even mark. The fourth line of Teddy Blueger, Drew O’Connor and Josh Archibald was especially strong with a Corsi of 78.26.

Ryan Poehling sat out with a nagging upper-body injury. Hopefully, he’s not Beau Bennett reincarnated.

DeSmith has made one less start (26) than Jarry (27). That ain’t good…

On Tap

The Pens (27-18-9, 63 points) take on the Devils (35-14-5, 75 points) this afternoon at PPG Paints Arena. Despite the loss, we’re still in fourth place in the Metro and cling to the top wild card spot in Eastern Conference.

We’re 15^th in the league in goals scored and 15^th in goals allowed. Which underscores the fact that we’re a decidedly middle-of-the-pack team.