PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Of all the crazy firsts for Louis Domingue in this postseason. How about this first, Saturday's playoff game was the first game Domingue played at PPG Paints Arena.
When you get caught up in the playoffs, you can often forget the little things. Like Domingue's first playoff start was Thursday in a near must-win for the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. He's only made four starts ever in a Pens uniform. Now here is the 30-year-old free agent, playing with the highest stakes, teamed with some of the best players ever.
"For the first time in the first seven years I've been in and out of the league, it's the first time I am a rookie again," Domingue said after the game Saturday. "I'm a rookie at the playoffs, I've never seen the NHL Playoffs. Every moment, every day is a new day for me, a new experience."
"I'm taking it one day at a time, one moment at a time. The crowd really kept me in this game (Saturday) coming into the third having to kill two penalties like that. Having to make a couple of saves, they gave me confidence."
"They had three penalties in a row and Louis stood his ground," said forward Evan Rodrigues. "Everyone knows he's a capable goalie, he's a good goalie. We have the utmost confidence in him. He showed in the third, he was our best penalty killer."
"He's played really well for us," said Pens Head Coach Mike Sullivan. "He's a very capable goalie. Our group believes in him and he's playing very well for us. We are just going to stay in the moment here, we are not going to get ahead of ourselves."
His numbers would be bottom part of the league in the regular season-93 shots, nine goals is a .903 save percentage and as a starter, a 4.5 goals against average. As Domingue said, it's not about the score, whether if you win or lose and Domingue has won both of the team's playoff decisions.
"I try to shut everything down, try to play this as another game, another day," Domingue said. "At the end of the day we are playing hockey. From the moment I brought my net outside in the street and put my rollerblades on. Played outside and had cars go around my net. This is the film I've been playing in my head the whole time."
"I think the most important aspect of the playoff experience is to ignore the noise of everything going around it," Sullivan said. "We have to earn it every day. We have to stay in the moment and I think Louis is doing a great job of that right now."
As Sullivan pointed out, he's had a number of rookies in his time here, some of them have their names on the Stanley Cup. This would be different, it's a 30-year-old rookie without a linemate or an experienced back-up to assist. It's a journeyman goalie who's never really hooked up anywhere who is now trying to help get a core group of Pens players back deeper in the playoffs in likely their final run together.
"Even if it's new to me, this is the film I've been playing in my head the whole time," Domingue reiterated. "I'm trying to control my emotions, it's pretty hard to be honest. It's so new and it's a lot but we are going to take it a day at a time."
"We've had a lot of rookies in my time here and some of them have their names on the Stanley Cup," Sullivan said. "It's about playing the game a certain way and staying in the moment and not getting overwhelmed by the circumstance. I think Louis has done a good job in that regard."
Tristan Jarry skated before the team on Saturday, the Pens primary goalie did not skate at all on Sunday.
