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Originally Posted by stemit14
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...
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Peters addressed this directly and said that pulling Rittich in the SJ game was actually all about preserving his confidence. The coaches even contemplated putting him back in net to finish that game.
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...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.
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As GioforPM already pointed out, it was late in the game. But I would also add that coaches are want to treat their young players a little differently than multi-year veterans in the twilight of their careers. There is nothing remotely odd about the differences in this regard.
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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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The leash-length is both experience-based as well as performance-based for the Flames goalies. One of them is young and just starting to break through as a bona fide NHL starter. The other is winding down a lengthy career. This has a lot to do with how differently Rittich and Smith are handled by Flames coaches. I would actually hazard to guess that these differences show that they are most concerned about protecting Rittich and ensuring the best path of development for him.