Quote:
Originally Posted by jayswin
Yeah, Rittich's biggest weakness is that he has a back up that routinely looks like a beer leaguer, throwing his whole body at pucks because he never had a read on it in the first place.
He's done at the NHL level after this season and would be done already if it weren't for the large contract obligation. Peters is desperately just putting Smith in for back to backs and pure basement teams.
Rittich would benefit greatly from a decent back up that could push him for starts and allow some games off to rest and not see such a dramatic rise in games played this early in his NHL career.
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I am rolling my eyes with as much exaggeration as I can muster at this post.
1. Rittich's "biggest weakness(es)" have nothing to do with his goaltending partner. He possibly has some responsive issues on the short side, and his handling of the puck could stand to improve.
2. Smith is not just "desperately" scraping by on games in back-to-back situations. Everything about how Peters has handled his goalies this year would indicate that there is a schedule of starts with Rittich getting somewhere between 2/3 or 3/4.
3. Rittich is in no danger whatsoever of getting worn down unless the coaches somehow foolishly decided that he is starting every one of the remaining 27 games. At present, he looks on pace to finish the year in around the range of 55-games, with or without Mike Smith on the roster.
4. There is no reason to think that changing out the backup goalie will do anything to affect Rittich's performance either positively or negatively. Where on the one hand it might help to "push" him, on the other hand there is the real possibility that he could struggle if the chemistry he has built with Smith over the course of nearly two full years is in any way altered.