The Pittsburgh Penguins held Casey DeSmith from practice as a precaution.
The Pittsburgh Penguins return home from a perfect three-game road trip and had near perfect attendance at practice.
The only player missing from the Penguins first practice back home was goalie Casey DeSmith; emergency backup goalie Mike Chiasson was filling in.
Following the practice, head coach Mike Sullivan said that the DeSmith missed practice to be evaluated for an upper-body injury.
Sullivan made sure to mention that the evaluation is just a precaution and nothing too serious.
“It was just more precautionary today,” Sullivan said.
DeSmith was the man in net for the Penguins in their 5-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks and has won three of his last four outings.
If the injury takes DeSmith out of the lineup, expect the Penguins to call up Dustin Tokarski from the AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Tokarski has been solid with the WBS Penguins putting up a 5-2-1 record and a .942 save percentage.
The Penguins have gotten some use out of their third string goalies over the last couple of seasons.
Louis Domingue was forced to make five starts in the 2022 postseason, and Maxime Lagace collected his first career shutout in the final game of the 2020-21 season.
Let's not forget Jeff Zatkoff starting in Game 1 of the 2016 postseason on the way to a Stanley Cup championship.
It’s unlikely the Penguins will need to scrape the AHL barrel, but it’s always good to note who is first in line if DeSmith or Tristan Jarry leave the lineup.
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