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Welp, turns out Tristan Jarry has played his last regular season game for 2020-21. Coach Mike Sullivan announced the starting goalie has joined backup goalie Casey DeSmith on the injury list.
Coach Sullivan on goalies: "Tristan is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Casey is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. They will be available for the playoffs, but neither one of them will be available for tomorrow's game."
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 7, 2021
The Penguins conclude tomorrow against the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo won’t have any pity on the Pens’ situation — their top FOUR goalies in the organization are all injured/unavailable.
Jarry played the entire game last night, it’s undisclosed exactly what his injury is, but he did have two shots go off his helmet. It’s encouraging at least that Sullivan expected Jarry to be available for the playoffs, which won’t start for quite a few days.
DeSmith left before completing Monday night’s game with an injury and hasn’t practiced since.
This leaves Maxime Lagace and Emil Larmi as Pittsburgh’s goalies for tomorrow.
Lagace, 28, has 17 career games of NHL experience with the Vegas Golden Knights. However it hasn’t gone well with a .868 career save% and 3.92 GAA. (But he held them in games enough to have a 6-7-1 career record). Lagace has only played nine games this season, all with AHL Wilkes-Barre where he has a .907 save% and 4-3-2 record and a 2.30 GAA.
Lagace has served as the backup goalie while DeSmith has been injured, so he’s the likely choice to play tomorrow, though an official decision was not announced by the coach. Larmi has no NHL experience and posted just a .845 save% in six games with AHL Wilkes-Barr this season (4.87 GAA, 1-4-1 record).
Goaltender was the one position that had remained healthy for the Pens, but given how their 2020-21 season has gone with injuries, it’s only cruelly fitting that the netminders get in on the games missed list like the defensemen and forwards have at different points of the season.
Other practice notes:
- Look for Chad Ruhwedel to get into his first game since March 16th tomorrow. Ruhwedel replaced Mark Friedman at practice on a pair with Cody Ceci. Friedman was on ice for two goals against last night, this could be punitive for that, or the coach might just want to get Ruhwedel dressed and in a game just in case he’s needed in the playoffs. Or both!
- Brandon Tanev skated but didn’t take line rushes. He won’t play tomorrow but from his own quotes sounds like he is targeting a return for the start of the playoffs.
- Evan Rodrigues and Mike Matheson were also absent from practice, as they have been since their respective injuries.