PITTSBURGH — Casey DeSmith didn’t miss a beat this past summer after missing out on his chance to lead the PenguinsThrough the first round of the last postseason.
DeSmith, injured in overtime of the Penguins’ playoff opener against the RangersSunday, he played his first game since that incident. In just 31 minutes, he stopped 12 of 13 shots. This resulted in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Blue JacketsSunday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena
“The summer’s long, and every preseason game it’s like, ‘OK, we’re back!’” DeSmith said. “It felt good to get out there and just be in the environment of a game, in an arena. It was quick out there.”
Smith had surgery to fix a second core-muscle strain in the offseason. He said the surgery had not affected his training and required a recovery period of 7-8 weeks.
If that injury history concerned the Penguins, it didn’t prevent them from re-signing DeSmith for two years this past July. And if there is concern about DeSmith’s mentality after such a rough blow — again, with starting goalie Tristan JarryDeSmith was injured to begin the last postseason. He was then ticketed as The Man in an NHL playoffs series for the first time — well, that should probably be put to bed, too.
