Rittich is amazing. I remember a few posters - as well as some media pundits - stating so matter of factly that Talbot is the Flames' bona fide starter, not Rittich. Patience is virtue sometimes. You have to find out if a short stretch of relatively poor play is the new norm, or if it is just a blip. Rittich has done enough in my opinion to have earned some patience, trust and a bit of rope. He IS the Flames' starter.
This is not to say that Talbot is lousy. On the contrary, Talbot - at least in my eyes - has looked like a legitimately good starter. Flames showed a tonne of patience with Talbot, and I think he has really rebounded from last season. I bet he is going to get even better in the coming weeks and months.
Funny how time completely throws you off. At the start of the year, the biggest question mark when it came to this team was goaltending. A starter that has never been a starter, and a backup fresh off the reclamation heap. Some posters were very critical of Treliving for not spending assets on finding a good starter in the off-season. Again, patience is virtue.
Flames have an unbelievable combo right now. And no, they are not playing well. They are, however (on most nights) doing enough to win, sometimes in the rare off-night that a goalie hasn't been great. Flames are finding ways to win. That's what good teams do. Win tight games. Don't get blown out. Good teams sometimes look like crap yet somehow escape with a W.
For sure this team needs to find more of that consistency. They have some stuff to figure out. Line adjustments probably have to be made. Some buttons need to be pressed I guess. Something needs to be done with how poorly this team plays - how listless they appear at times. But they are still finding ways to win. That's huge. Wait until those buttons are pressed, the line-ups are adjusted, and maybe even additional help is found. With the goaltending and depth that this team has, it can really start making some noise. Wouldn't surprise me.
For tonight, Rittich has been a God. That was some amazing #### he did tonight. He made it look easy. Almost had a shutout too, as he caught some of that Nylander tip, but just not enough to deflect it wide enough. That's about as good of a night as you are ever going to see in the NHL.
