Quote:
Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden
The way I see it is as such:
last year Rittich collapsed after the break because he was not ready to be the guy. Simply put he was over whelmed.
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I'm really sick of reading this narrative.
Last year after Smith went down
- The Flames got totally whallopped at Boston in all areas. Rittich didn't stand on his head but was solid. That was all we would have asked of Smith.
- The Flames dominated Nashville and Rittich was completely solid. Then he screwed his SV% for the game making a fancy pass down the middle of the ice, with a multi goal cushion that made it purely academic.
-The Panthers scored some goals on Rittich, most of which was atrocious coverage by Gio himself. Watch the goals, no goalie is pitching a shutout in that game. Loss.
-Rittich played the best game of his career at home VS Boston, and was the only reason they got a point. OTL
- Rittich played a legitimately bad game in Vegas against the Golden Knights. The kind of game every goalie is prone to once or twice a season. It was his first and worst game of his career. Loss, first one that was on him and not on the team in front since Smith went down.
- Then Rittich stood on his head for a period and a half against the Avalanche. Flames were playing awful and ultimately a penalty parade and some odd man rushes with perfect execution cost Rittich goals against. As with the Panthers game, Rittich was left out to dry. He did have a minor meltdown on his final goal against - the closest thing to your narrarive - but it was one bad foal after the team had completely let him down.
- then Gulutzan, genius that he was, decided that Rittich's losing streak was on Rittich because Gillies won a game against the Avs 4 nights earlier - a game the Flames played MUCH better defensively and the Avs played MICH worse overall. This got Gillies the next start, where he cost the team with soft goals. And then Gulutzan went to Gillies again in Pittsburgh, probably the best game TJ Brodie played in the 2017-18 season, which Gillies cost the team with multiple bad goals against - a game I firmly believe Rittich would have handily won.
- Rittich then won his next two starts over Buffalo and Ottawa with great SV%s in both, as the team's overall play was back to being competent. Rittich's two game win streak warranted a third game (and probably win) in a row but the next game Mike Smith returned and proceeded to cost the Flames a win with soft goals against New York - a game they should absolutely have won.
I'm sure Rittich probably did take some mental notes on how to handle being a starter, but that sequence of losses was a team meltdown, not a Rittich meltdown. He had one bad goaltending performance after Smith went down, Gillies got a few of the softer starts to pad his stats (Dallas was an offensively useless team last year too) and then the team was quick to pin losses on Rittich.
Even this year Rittich had a 4 game streak of starts without a win. He wasn't overwhelmed or not ready, the timing just worked out that way.