Domingue: "My Job is To Be Ready When Called Upon"
And now, with Tristan Jarry out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, Domingue has been moved up - getting recalled to Pittsburgh from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to join Casey DeSmith on the team's goalie tandem.
"Louis is a very talented goalie," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "He's worked extremely hard here since he's been a Pittsburgh Penguin. He's put a strong body of work together in Wilkes-Barre. He has NHL experience. He's obviously played once for us, and had a terrific game in San Jose. That third goalie is a really important aspect of just shoring up the depth of that position."
That appearance in San Jose came back on Jan. 15, where Domingue made 40 saves in Pittsburgh's 2-1 overtime win over the Sharks. It was his first NHL victory since Jan. 12, 2020, with the New Jersey Devils. Domingue said one of his goals going into that night was to show his teammates that he was legitimate, and felt like he accomplished that with his performance.
"And now, it's been a while, so at the end of the day, you got to start all over again and do it all over again," Domingue said.
That's because the morning Domingue was set to get another start with Pittsburgh during their back-to-back set on Jan. 20-21, but he suffered a lower-body injury of his own in the game-day skate ahead of the first matchup with Ottawa after taking a shot off the inside of his foot. That resulted in almost two months of rehabbing, halting the momentum Domingue had created for himself by grabbing onto his chance.
"It was definitely a bad timing," Domingue said. "I was feeling comfortable, feeling especially comfortable with my teammates, which is something that's always hard to accomplish when you just come in in the middle of the season."
Domingue eventually returned to game action with WBS on March 12, and has been playing regularly ever since. That, along with having an important role on a team fighting to make the AHL playoffs, helped the 29-year-old netminder gain a lot of confidence that he's brought with him to Pittsburgh.
"It's fun, because for the last few years, I haven't had a chance to really lead a team in net," Domingue said. "So it's been great, for sure. At the end of the day, when I come up here, my job is to be ready to get in net when I'm called upon. I've been working towards that down there, and when I'm up here. So if they do want me in net, I'll be ready for my opportunity. It's one of those things where you've been preparing your whole life for this type of opportunity."
The Penguins have five regular-season games remaining, including a set of back-to-back games on Saturday in Detroit and on Sunday in Philadelphia, so there's a good chance Domingue could add another game onto the body of work he's compiled.
He has played 141 games in the NHL over the past seven seasons with Arizona, Tampa Bay, New Jersey, Vancouver and Calgary, putting together a 59-59-10 record with a 3.04 goals-against average, .905 save percentage and two shutouts. His best NHL season came in 2018-19 with Tampa Bay when he went 21-5-0, including an 11-game winning streak, marking a team record at the time.
The Penguins are currently in the midst of a four-day break between games, with their next matchup coming on Thursday against Boston, and Domingue plans to try and make the most of it so that he continues to be ready for whatever his future holds.
"So getting the reps here in practice, having this time right now before the playoffs, we have a few practices - that's pretty rare this time of the year," he said. "So I'm going to try to use that to my advantage with my teammates, trying to bond and trying to pick up where we left off."
