Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
It is bizarre to me that people think this. He is a second-year NHL goalie, has started most of the games for his team, and is getting his third start in five games on home ice against one of the highest scoring teams in the NHL. I can't see why on earth anyone would imagine that the team is losing confidence in their 26-year-old goalie.
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It does seem like less priority is made towards building Rittich’s confidence when compared to Smith. Case in point would be comparing how the goalies were treated when giving up bad goals recently.
In the San Jose game, when Rittich went out to play the puck and turned it over to Brent Burns who then scored to give the sharks a 2-1 lead, Rittich was pulled immediately. When Smith went out of this net to play the puck... and stayed out there for some reason... Minnesota scored to make a 2-1 game. Smith, however, was not pulled at all. He then let in another poor goal later when the flames were making a late push.
It’s just frustrating how short the leash is on Rittich compared to Smith despite Rittich showing as the better goaltender this season.
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