Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
I love Rittich's positioning - he's always square to the puck. His tracking has improved from last year to a huge degree. He has a great glove - very efficient in his catching. He doesn't give a lot of rebounds and he's good at deflecting the puck away from the play.
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Yup, all of this.
The Flames are a deep and solid team with a strong offense and an incredible transition game. They don't need Rittich to be Kiprusoff, they just need a steady goalie that does his job. Rittich is exactly that. He tracks the puck well and stays square to the play. And his rebound control is improving. The Flames are good enough that he doesn't need to be perfect or super human - they just need him to do his job and keep them in it.
He is realizing that, and the team is realizing that. And with that, his confidence is growing. And the team's confidence in him is growing.
We don't need a Gibson. The question of this thread, IMO, is: can Rittich be the guy that the Flames need? And I think he definitely can, and is becoming that as we speak.
The big issue with goalies though, is: can they keep doing it year after year. And only time will tell, of course.