Mark Madden: Goaltending leaves Penguins at grave disadvantage vs. Rangers

A good story does not equate to a good player. Don’t confuse the two.

Louis Domingue is a good story.

He’s the first goalie to enter a playoff game during its second overtime. He ate spicy pork and broccoli during a prior intermission Tuesday because he didn’t think he’d play. He bakes for his teammates. He does personalized videos on Cameo. (Fifty bucks. Get ’em while they’re hot.) Domingue stopped 17 shots and beat the New York Rangers on Tuesday.

But he’s a minor-league goalie.

Domingue is usually third on the Penguins’ depth chart. He’s 30. He’s played for six NHL teams and seven minor-league teams.

Domingue isn’t horrible. But he can’t stick in the NHL.

He’s not why the Penguins lost Game 2 at New York on Thursday. But what would the score have been if Domingue and the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin had switched nets?

Domingue is as fringe as can be. Shesterkin is the presumptive Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goaltender. Domingue’s save percentage in these playoffs is .912. Shesterkin’s is .952.

It’s not exactly an even matchup, let alone one that favors the Penguins.

Domingue did his best Thursday. None of the goals allowed was bad, per se. But he let in five, and that’s too many.

The Penguins did their best, too. But they scored twice, and that’s not enough. Sidney Crosby’s line got on the scoresheet but nobody else.

There’s no way to imagine that the goaltending battle goes the Penguins’ way. Ultimately, that figures to decide the series. Casey DeSmith will miss the rest of the playoffs. Tristan Jarry is a longshot to return soon enough.

But hope springs eternal. The Penguins split at Madison Square Garden, competed hard and there’s still everything to play for.

But here’s what needs to get better:

• The Penguins must get a lead. The Penguins have led in this series for one instant out of 165 minutes and 58 seconds, that being when Evgeni Malkin scored in the third overtime of Game 1. The Penguins can’t come from behind indefinitely and especially not against Shesterkin.

• The Penguins need to get offense from somebody besides the line of Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust. The Penguins put 41 shots on Shesterkin on Thursday, but serious threats were few. The goals came from Guentzel and Crosby. That line has four of the Penguins’ five even-strength goals on the series and provides most of their sustained pressure. Can’t be a one-line team.

• Get Brian Dumoulin, Rickard Rakell and Jason Zucker back in the lineup. The Penguins were crippled for Game 2, especially up front. But Dumoulin’s absence, despite his subpar play this season, rearranges the Penguins’ defense into less effective pairs. When Mike Matheson skates with Kris Letang, for example, both offensive defensemen play at the same time. Letang and Matheson were not nearly as good in Game 2 as they were in Game 1.

• The bottom six flat-out stinks. It doesn’t just need to get better. It needs to register a pulse. Never mind all the mumbo-jumbo we hear about Jeff Carter and Brian Boyle: “Veteran leadership,” “good in the room,” blah, blah, blah. Just don’t reek.

But it’s not all bad. If you could have negotiated a split at Madison Square Garden before a game had been played, you’d have taken it.

Crosby is absolutely on fire. No one is playing better so far in these playoffs.

But the sad fact remains: The goaltending matchup likely makes it impossible for the Penguins to win this series.