Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Some time in the last two weeks Rittich's injury suffered in the NYE SJ game is something that Pat Steinburg and Ryan Pinder discussed on SN960. Pat said that Rittich talked about it at the end of the season, and he was obviously bothered by it. It affected his game prep, and it made certain movements in the crease difficult.
Among starting goalies in Oct–Dec Rittich ranked fourth in SP with a 0.924, and third in GAA with a 2.26. Prior to the NYE game in 13 of Rittich's 19 starts he posted a SP over 0.920. Following the injury, his numbers plummeted to a 0.902 SP, and a 2.83 GAA. He posted a +0.920 SP in only 8 of his remaining 22.
The injury was clearly an issue. Maybe that in itself is a risk moving forward, but given how well he played last year when healthy I think it is fair to assume that a good deal of that uncertainty is erased heading into this season.
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Rittich doesn’t have enough of a track record to definitively attribute his performance to an injury of which we know zero details. It’s good to be optimistic and hopeful and I believe he can improve. I’m only stating what I see as a plausible risk.