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sketchyt · 02-02-2021, 07:24 PM

There's a lot of assumptions and misinformation when talking about goaltending in general. Some of the criticisms are about as useful as being the guy in the crowd yelling, 'shoooooooot'.

First goal: Rittich can be blamed for poor puck tracking when the puck somehow gets into the slot from behind the bloody net on a PP, but the huge majority of NHL goalies are not making that save especially when you're trying to challenge the shot and you have to toss Dube's salad while you're at it.

Second goal: There's a lot of comments on him over committing or that he needs to calm down. This means nothing. In goaltending, a huge component is ensuring your feet continuously get set from spot to spot. Rittich is not doing this and is why he looks like he's always sliding all over the place. It's a difficult thing to continuously do as it's so damn tempting to go after it instead of being patient with the play.

Third goal: There's two basic ways to play this. 1. Goal line in a la Mike Smith (Markstrom does this too but not to Smiths' ridiculous extent). 2. Goal line out (Kiprusoff was a master at this). Rittich will always choose the second option as he doesn't have the size or puck tracking to sit on the goal line and get big. IMO, he played this fine but should have had more awareness to the wide open man with no D near him. Sometimes, this is how it goes.

To me, the biggest issue with Rittich's game is the discipline to get his feet set, read the play, readjusting and then repeating. He also has very good lower body strength and has the ability to push with a lot of power. Essentially, he needs to commit more to micro movements instead of big swooping motions (Luongo had once said he tracks his movements down to the quarter inch. That is insane). This is all a lot harder than it sounds. That's why you pay Markstrom $6 million for six years.

I personally think the worst goal allowed in the period is the Flames goal. Hellybucyk was swimming out there and gave himself zero chance. Read the play/pass completely wrong, didn't rotate his body/hips to the post and push hard there. Still might not have saved it, but it's better than zero.

02-02-2021, 07:24 PM	#359
sketchyt Powerplay Quarterback Join Date: Sep 2005 Exp:	There's a lot of assumptions and misinformation when talking about goaltending in general. Some of the criticisms are about as useful as being the guy in the crowd yelling, 'shoooooooot'. First goal: Rittich can be blamed for poor puck tracking when the puck somehow gets into the slot from behind the bloody net on a PP, but the huge majority of NHL goalies are not making that save especially when you're trying to challenge the shot and you have to toss Dube's salad while you're at it. Second goal: There's a lot of comments on him over committing or that he needs to calm down. This means nothing. In goaltending, a huge component is ensuring your feet continuously get set from spot to spot. Rittich is not doing this and is why he looks like he's always sliding all over the place. It's a difficult thing to continuously do as it's so damn tempting to go after it instead of being patient with the play. Third goal: There's two basic ways to play this. 1. Goal line in a la Mike Smith (Markstrom does this too but not to Smiths' ridiculous extent). 2. Goal line out (Kiprusoff was a master at this). Rittich will always choose the second option as he doesn't have the size or puck tracking to sit on the goal line and get big. IMO, he played this fine but should have had more awareness to the wide open man with no D near him. Sometimes, this is how it goes. To me, the biggest issue with Rittich's game is the discipline to get his feet set, read the play, readjusting and then repeating. He also has very good lower body strength and has the ability to push with a lot of power. Essentially, he needs to commit more to micro movements instead of big swooping motions (Luongo had once said he tracks his movements down to the quarter inch. That is insane). This is all a lot harder than it sounds. That's why you pay Markstrom $6 million for six years. I personally think the worst goal allowed in the period is the Flames goal. Hellybucyk was swimming out there and gave himself zero chance. Read the play/pass completely wrong, didn't rotate his body/hips to the post and push hard there. Still might not have saved it, but it's better than zero.