I was perusing other Penguins media sites this morning, casually reading some of the comments. I was surprised to note more than a couple taking shots at black-and-gold backup goalie Casey DeSmith in the wake of what I thought was a reasonably solid performance against the Stars last night.
To review, DeSmith stopped 30 of 33 shots, good for a .909 save percentage. The game-winning goal was hardly his fault…the Stars flooded our zone on a 3-on-1. Max Domi’s initial shot from point-blank range slammed off Casey’s mask and popped into the slot, where Jamie Benn…unfettered by late-arriving back checkers…buried the loose puck.
On the Stars’ second goal, a power-play tally, Benn was parked…again unfettered…mere feet away, drawing DeSmith’s attention away goal scorer Joe Pavelski in the high slot.
On the game-opening goal, Roope Hintz blew past Chad Ruhwedel and Josh Archibald on a partial breakaway and beat Casey five-hole.
None of these goals was especially egregious and he certainly didn’t cost us the game. Yet the criticism continues, some of it downright dismissive of his abilities.
Anyway, it got me to thinking. Does Casey get a bad rap?
Judging by the numbers, I’d say yes.
His .907 save percentage ranks just behind starter Tristan Jarry’s (.908) and above such notable netminders as former Pens Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray, Cam Talbot, Frederik Andersen, Sergei Bobrovsky, John Gibson, Jordan Binnington, Philipp Grubauer, Jacob Markstrom, Jack Campbell and Jonathan Quick. He’s a small notch below the Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov (.910), widely regarded as the best backup in the league.
With a cap hit of $1.8 million, he’s by far the most affordable of the bunch.
For his career? DeSmith’s posted a solid .913 save percentage and 2.79 goals against average. That compares favorably to other Pens goalies past and present, including Jarry (.913 and 2.65), Murray (.911 and 2.78) and Fleury (.913 and 2.58), a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer.
Perhaps it’s his stature, or lack of, that causes people to look down on him…literally. Generously listed at 6’0” and 181 pounds, the 31-year-old New Hampshire native doesn’t exactly fill the net. I confess when he first came on the scene, his smallish frame didn’t fill me with confidence. Especially during an era when gargantuan goalies reign. Yet Casey compensates with quickness and athleticism. He generally does a good job of playing on top of his crease to make himself look bigger and cut down shooting angles.
Casey’s a battler, too.
Although more a traditional backup then say, a 1A, for the most part he’s been effective in an expanded role this season. An uneven stretch that ran from the holidays to late January coincided with the absences of key defensemen Kris Letang, Jeff Petry and Jan Rutta, which no doubt had a negative impact on the team’s d-zone coverage.
Since the All-Star break, Casey’s posted a .918 save percentage over 13 appearances. He’s been even better in March, as his .923 save percentage and 2.28 goals against average in six games will attest.
A good thing, too, because we may may be forced to ride him in the wake of yet another injury to Jarry.
Bottom line? The Pens could do far worse than DeSmith for a backup and maybe not a whole lot better.
Happy Birthday Rick !!! All the best….
Hope we have many more!!
JIm
Sorry Rick,
I have to give a hard no on this one. Casey DeSmith doesn’t get a bad rap, he EARNED his rap, as does selfish clown Jarry.
What the Other Rick?!?!?!?!?
Yes, he has earned the criticisms thrown at him.
Our Penguins are getting gówno for Goaltending this season. DeSmith’s Sv% of 907 may only be 1 pnt below Jarry’s 908 but Jarry is tied for 28th in the league in Sv% and DeSmith is tied for 30th – that STINKS.
This isn’t a popularity contest. It doesn’t matter how much we like a player. The only thing that matters is how is the guy playing, and playing now, not 10 years ago. Comparing DeSmith’s play right now to MAF right now is OK, but MAF isn’t playing well right now either. Yes, in his youth, MAF carved himself out a great career, but he is on the back end of that career. His skills a greatly diminished. Yes, part of me would have liked to see the Pens acquire him back for him to finish his career with Crosby, Malkin, and Letang on the greatest farewell tour of all time, but that doesn’t mean that I have to blind myself to the truth – MAF is not a bench mark goalie right now.
I played Goal as a kid. I have always followed the Pens Goalies. There have been many Penguins Goalies, of which, I have been a fan, but that doesn’t mean they were all good Goalies. I liked Les Binkley, the first Pens Goalie I remember watching. He even held most of the Pens Goalie records early in the teams history but that doesn’t preclude me from seeing how far down the list of Pens top Goalies he ranks.
I even liked Gordie Laxton, probably because I was young and there was hoopla about him being a top draft pick, but he definitely deserves his low rank in Penguin’s history.
Casey Desmith has had some decent seasons in a Penguins uniform, but his play right now is atrocious. You say he is a battler, ok. However, even at his best his battling was because of his weaknesses. He constantly overreacts to plays and then has to try and come back to try and make a great save. Sometimes he does and fans that have never played Goal get awe-struck. Most times he doesn’t get back in position and the puck goes in and people who are more Casey DeSmith fans, because he is a nice guy, blame the other players for not helping out, rather than DeSmith, who put himself in the bad situation in the first place.
Which brings me to Jarry and his selfishness, constantly trying to score Goals rather than prevent them.
I am of course referring to the other night when the bozo drew 2 – icing calls, with the resultant face-offs in his own end, that could have easily resulted in GA. How many “Penguins’ Fans” would have forgotten that selfish play on Jarry’s part and blamed the Center for losing the draw if a GA was scored. Or a D-man for failing to pick up an opponent. And I put the term Penguins’ Fans in quotes because at that point those people are Jarry fans and not Penguins’ Fans!
And my final point is this, hypocrisy!!!! All the defenses of the current crap masquerading as Goaltending for the Penguins being defended by people who attacked Matt Murray or MAF just a few years back as they fought over who was better rather than enjoying both while they were in top form and in Pens uniform, makes me sick.
PS My rankings of 28th and 30th were based on the current stats of Natural Stat trick for Goalies who played 200 minutes or more., roughly 1 STDDEV.
Sorry Other Rick, but I’m calling you out on your criteria. I would suggest that 10 games (roughly 600 minutes) would be a much more reasonable cutoff.
Based on that criteria, Jarry is tied for 26th in save percentage and DeSmith 28th.
You also fail to provide a backend number for both reference and perspective. Those rankings are out of 76 qualifying goalies based on my criteria. Hardly Vezina-esque, but well above the norm.
Rick
Sorry Rick but statistics use 1 Standard Deviation from the mean, not biased attempts to manipulate inclusion or exclusion subjects to suit your narrative.
In truth, I haven’t run any analysis in a while so my 200 minutes was a tad low, but far closer than your attempt to justify DeSmith. Your 600 minutes is roughly twice the bottom number. I try to be as objective as possible and divorce myself from my prejudices as much as possible, to the point of obscuring the names while I look at the data.
The only way DeSmith doesn’t deserve derision is if the Penguins don’t consider themselves as Cup contenders but a middling at best closer to a bottom team. He has been Jekyll and Hyde all season turning in 15 of 36 performances under 0.900. If you want to believe 15 of 36 sub 0.900 performances as somehow quality Goaltending then knock yourself out.
TOR,
Making this all about DeSmith. He is considered a backup goalie. His pay probably puts him a tiny bit higher than most backups, and so does his amount of games played. I have him figured at about the 11-12th best backup in the league by going by save % of backups ahead of him which include backups on some good teams like Boston, Colorado, Vegas, and Jersey. It also includes 2 guys in front of him o my list that played less than 6 games. At the same time, Desmith is in playing better than an awful lot of starters.
Stupid math would tell you there are 32 teams in the league, if every starting goalie had a better save percentage, Desmith would be #1 best backup if he was ranked #33. You have him ranked as 30th.
The Pens defense has been riddled with injuries all season. I don’t have is numbers when the D is healthy but would be willing to bet they are not that bad. I also take into effect the fact that many of the games he plays are from back to back games on the oldest team in the league. I’m not sure what the Pens record is on the second game like against the well rested Stars but I’m pretty sure it is horrible.
So, all of that being said, I am with Rick that Desmith gets a bad rap. I’m not saying he’s Martin Brodeur, I’m just saying he is far from “Stinking”.
I am definitely one of the guys that said Murray was not starting goalie material after they shrunk his pads. The hypocrisy comment is ironic because DeSmith’s save percentage is .907, Murray’s was .899 his last season with the Pens and now you are saying DeSmith stinks. Murray is pulling in 7m this year and 8m next year, Desmith 1.8m this and 1.8m next. When your maxed against the cap, $ value is everything.
Since it was an interesting stat Matt Murray is the 3rd most expensive goalie per save in the league this year out of the 80 goalies that have played.
https://www.capfriendly.com/cost-per-save/2023/season/all/all/save-percentage/desc
The thing I do agree with you with is that Hex/Sully need to start throwing the prospects into the games and see what they got. It is a problem that they haven’t especially with Jarry’s injury problems and the possibility of maybe needing a starter next year.
I never once said that Murray was great after Bales left and then his father passed. Nor did I ever say he was worth the $6.25 million he is now getting. In fact, right here on these boards, right before that 2020 draft I purposed the very deal the was made, trade Murray’s rights for a pick and take Joel Blomqvist with that pick – the only time the Pens had the good sense to listen to me. Therefore there is no irony in my statements. I don’t care about what any player once did, I only worry about what they are doing now nd Jarry and DeSmith are costing this team wins. They are both horrible Jekyll and Hyde Goalies, looking like ECHL material 1 out of roughly every 2 games (DeSmith) and 1 out of every 3 games (Jarry). Saying that either isn’t as bad as others is only excuse making to justify status quo. I couldn’t care less who is doing worse than they are, they both need to go.
I don’t like losing and I don’t settle. I would liked Murray and appreciated his dominance during the Back-to-Back but not only accepted but promoted moving him out. Neither DeSmith nor Jarry have done anything close to that. Time to move on.
TOR,
You keep tying Jarry and Desmith together, I am not. Desmith as a BACKUP goalie does not have bad numbers compared to the rest of the backups in the league. I would even venture to say the in the role that he has been thrust into this year playing way more games, he has not done that bad at all. My Opinion.
Jarry, I have been sticking up for because he comes from high pedigree and was a sought after goalie in his youth. He is still sort of a prospect to me. I would still like to see what he could do healthy, but at this point the guy really has no value. You can not be injured this much. Over the Summer Hextall has a huge decision to make. Will the Penguins next year be: Jarry/Desmith again, New #1 Goalie/Jarry split time maybe, New #1/Desmith, or New #1/New #2. None of these options are easy.
I do want to say that I enjoyed Jarry going for the goalie goals, and not just a little bit. I really enjoyed it. People watch and go to the games to see great hockey plays or at least I do. A goalie goal is a huge thing. Playing thousands of games, I may have only seen four. Mainly because of at my level, goalies can’t reach the other end of the ice with the puck lol, but it was exciting even at beer league level. As a goalie I would have thought you of all people would love that, but I wonder if your dislike for him has tainted your view of what could have been an amazing feat.
Hey Phil,
I am am only tying DeSmith and Jarry together because they are both hurting this team greatly. The team defense is very weak. perhaps it is because of the system and that they never really practice what to do in the defensive zone and teach the D-men to be stick wavers and not to put body on body. Regardless if the why s of the defense being weak, this team would need stellar not average goaltending. Both Jarry and DeSmith are average and both have shown to be injury prone. Neither being average or being injury prone bode well for a team with stick waving defensemen that have no idea who to cover in the D-Zone or have a fear of putting body on body, making it open season on their fragile Goalies.
As for Jarry, Gordie Laxton had pedigree too. Pedigree only means something when looking to draft prospects, after that pedigree becomes meaningless. Performance becomes the only important factor, and not 3 years ago performance, or last years performance. The only past performance that should weigh on a coach’s mind is what did that Goalie do last game, did it earn him today’s start.
As a Goalie, I find Wins the most important thing. Everything else becomes secondary. Once the Win is secured, then getting a shutout would be the next benchmark I value, particularly if my team “D” was really pitching in to help me get that shutout, sacrificing their bodies. Then I bust a gut as well as it becomes pride for everyone.
Goalies scoring Goals is nothing but a circus attraction to me. I value getting assists by helping out my Defense breakout means more (not accumulating Gv like a certain Penguin Goalie leads the league in, but making smart decisions with the puck to move it along).
The only time a Goalie should ever think about such a selfish play would be if the other team has a Power Play with a pulled Goalie so that the selfish attempt by that Goalie does not endanger the Win with an icing call. Jarry’s attempts were selfish and stupid at the same time. I would have benched him for such a pathetically self absorbed risk of a Win made even more problematic by the team’s desperate need of wins to lock up a playoff spot.
Excellent post!
Casey’s anticipation and reads are critical to compensate for his smaller stature. He needs to selectively be more aggressive and read plays more accurately than a larger goaler who can hang back. He’s a very “smart” goaltender in that regard, much like Sarros. While viewing a few practices over the years, I’ve noticed DeSmith tends to like drills that include multiple options which must help in that regard. He’d make a really good goalie coach someday.
Great read as always!
Hello Raj and welcome to PenguinPoop!
Everyone (including my colleague Other Rick) seems to want to put Casey down. They say we should’ve upgraded. My question is, who should we have gotten? Perhaps Jaroslav Halak, who signed with the Rangers for $1.5 million. But he’s 37 and his numbers aren’t any better than DeSmith’s.
Maybe we should’ve tried to get Joonas Korpisalo from Columbus. He’s doing well this season, but his numbers were awful the last couple of seasons (career .903 save percentage). Vitek Vanacek and Alexandar Georgiev were available through trades, but they’re a bit out of our price range.
Maybe Ilya Samsonov, who signed with the Leafs for $1.8 million. But he did not play especially well with the Caps.
I’d just like to see someone suggest a better option who would’ve fit into our cap structure.
Rick
Hey Rick,
On the flip side of the coin, you can’t fix something until you acknowledge it is a problem. If I had my way, the team would still have had Filip Gustavsson – how good would he look in a Penguins uniform right now. I also wanted the team to sign Adam Reideborn several years back but no, our decision makers preferred to go status quo asking the very same question you are asking now, who would you sign?
I would not accept the mediocrity of a 28th and 30th ranked Goalie. I would keep trying options, plan A, B, C, D, E, F, G, etc until I finally found a goalie that can actually play. And before you beat the dead horse of “when you think you have a shot at the Cup (which we don’t) you need to go with a veteran” I must remind you that Matt Murray won 2 – Cups while still a rookie.
These clowns don’t have any!
My answer to you Rick is give Gauthier and/or Lindberg shots. If we are going to lose anyway, let’s find out if we have to move on from the guys in the system or not while we are losing. As it is, these 2 guys and Tokarski to boot are losing games and we still don’t know if any of the kids can hack it.
And no you can’t do any worse than losing games. Just as a win is a win is a win, a loss is a loss is a loss. Actually, lossing with a veteran is far, far worse than losing with a kid. The veteran isn’t going to learn from their mistakes.