The Pittsburgh Penguins decided to start Silovs in their most recent win against the Columbus Blue Jackets as the Penguins were on a back-to-back and had played Stuart Skinner on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings. Well, as of late, Silovs has not looked like a starting caliber goaltender and did not on Sunday against Columbus.
Silovs is quite a bit lucky that his offense came all the way back and defeated the Blue Jackets in overtime 5-4. But Silovs allowed 4 goals on 25 shots and allowed 3 goals in the first period alone after the Penguins took the 1-0 lead early on a goal by Ville Koivunen.
Silovs has not looked his best at all ever since he shutout the New York Rangers on Opening night way back in October. In his last four starts, he has allowed 3 goals, 3 goals, 3 goals, and 4 goals. He is very lucky that in all of those games, his offense has carried the team to a win.
And the Penguins have a problem as well not just with Silovs. But prized goalie prospect Sergei Murashov, who has seen a lot of time lately in AHL Wilkes-Barre, is not an NHL goalie as of the current moment. Murashov has played a few NHL games for the Penguins this season and did not look ready.
So, the Penguins and general manager Kyle Dubas have stashed Murashov in the AHL as he needs as much seasoning down there as he can possibly get. But if the Silovs experiment gets any worse, there might need to be a change in goal with Murashov coming up and Silovs going down.
But as of the current moment, there may not be a sense in Dubas's mind to change the goaltending. He already did that when he dealt Tristan Jarry, and he might not think that there is a need to swap Silovs and Murashov as of the current moment.