The Penguins have had to play through injuries to key players on defense and at forward all season long and now they will close out the regular season with a goalie who hasn’t played an NHL game this season.
When Tristan Jarry wasn’t on the ice Friday most of us figured it was probably a maintenance day until Mike Sullivan said after the 22-minute workout that Jarry was held out due to an upper body injury and he will not play Saturday afternoon. With Casey DeSmith still rehabbing his lower body injury off-ice that leave Sullivan with an unproven goaltender in a game the Pens need to win to ensure home ice for the first round of the playoffs.
Sullivan declined to say whether Maxime Legace or Emil Larmi will start in the finale, although Legace is the only one of the two with NHL experience. “We’ll announce that tomorrow, as we always do on a game day,” Sullivan said, “but we’ll expect out goalies to make the timely save to give this team a chance to win.
“That’s just one more aspect of the depth that’s being challenged,” Sullivan added. “Throughout the course of this season there hasn’t been a position that hasn’t been challenged on our team. It’s just one more challenge for us to finish off this season the right way and that’s what our expectation is.”
Legace played a total of 17 games for Vegas from 2017-19 with a 3.92 goals against average and a save percentage of just .868. In nine AHL games this season Legace’s numbers were 2.30 and in.907. Larmi’s – 4.87 and .845.
Sullivan did say that both Jarry and DeSmith will be available for Game One of the playoffs.
Brandon Tanev practiced again but won’t play Saturday. “It’s been nice skating with the team, they’re playing really well right now,” said Tanev, who is confident he will be able to ramp up his game during practices.
“Looking forward to the next week here, working with the guys, building confident and having fun.”
Tanev admits it hasn’t been much fun after missing all but two games since March 18th. “Injuries are going to happen throughout the year and it’s just how you face those injuries and how to deal with them,” Tanev reasons. “Our training staff does a phenomenal job of putting guys in the right position and getting back to being healthy.”
As for the other injured guys, Sullivan said that Mike Matheson, who took a puck to the face last Saturday in DC, again skated before practice while Evan Rodrigues (lower body) continues his off-ice rehab.
The Penguins also announced that tickets for the first two playoff games will go on sale next Wednesday at 10:00 AM and that capacity will stay at 25 percent for the first round.