Photo Credit: Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images
Pekka Rinne is coming off the largest signing in Predators history, a 7 yr/$49 Million contract, and has been on fire putting up tremendous numbers including being tied for the league lead in shutouts, 7th in wins and 1st in Saves.
Yet, in the aftermath of the Columbus overtime loss, the shooting gallery from the Edmonton Oliers and the up-endings in Minnesota and Detroit, is Pekka Rinne starting to wear out? And with the amount of games that Rinne has started, is Lindback getting enough of a workload to assist when Rinne doesn’t start?
Pekka Rinne has started and played in more games than any other goaltender in the NHL (although tied with Carey Price and Cam Ward). This workload has contributed to his staggering numbers and an All-Star ballot appearance and as Terry Crisp and many others who follow the Predators have pointed out, an abundance of starts only makes Rinne more dangerous and keeps him in the zone similar to a former Nashville goaltender: Tomas Vokoun.
So far in the 2011-2012 season, Rinne has posted a 10-7-4 record with a 2.47 GAA and a .925 Sv%.
These numbers are good enough that Rinne should finally get the All-Star nod that has snubbed him over the last two seasons. The only problem with any of these stats is the 21 games played. Rinne is the workhorse of the Nashville Predators and with the offense not putting up more shots against their opponents, it is up to Rinne to become a brick wall and play beyond expectation for the Predators to stay in most games. Rinne has thrived amidst this kind of attention, but in an 82 game schedule and playing 21 out of 22 games for the Predators so far, the fatigue and off-games might catch up to not only Rinne but the Predators organization.
It wasn’t that long ago when teams would ride a stud goaltender into the ground with a 90%+ starting rate. The first that comes to mind is Miikka Kiprusoff. In the last three seasons, Kiprusoff has started well over 90% of the season and where has that landed the Calgary Flames come playoff time?
2010-2011 – 71 Games Played – Didn’t qualify for playoffs
2009-2010 – 73 Games Played – Didn’t qualify for playoffs
2008-2009 – 76 Games Played – Defeated in First Round Playoffs
To compare Nashville’s offensive prowess to Calgary is laughable and Calgary couldn’t make the playoffs two out of the last three seasons with formidable talent such as Glencross, Iginla, Bouwmeester and Bourque to name a few.
Pekka Rinne has done a phenomenal job back-stopping for the Nashville Predators and many fans would love to see him play out the remainder of his contract as one of the elite goaltenders in the NHL. But one has to wonder how long Rinne can keep up this level of play, especially given the amount of games he has already played and will continue to play in order for Nashville to stay in playoff contention throughout the season.
What say you? Should Rinne get less starts in favor of Lindback to not only give Rinne a break but to develop Lindback’s game? Does Rinne get better and better the more opportunities he is given or the more shots he faces?
Of course start Lindback. I’ve been saying it since May–25 starts for Lindy. Geez, people. How can you expect Rinne to do it all? How can you get good value in a trade for Lindback if no one ever gets to see him perform? For that matter, how will Lindy get better if he never gets to play? Starting Lindback more is a win for Pekka, a win for Lindy, and more importantly, a win for the team, even if he lets in goals that Peks might not. The team only gets better with two solid goalies to call on.
Here…here…well said and I agree whole-heartedly…Lindy is good and sometimes you have to start the back-up to keep the rest of the team on their toes…too many times it looks like the Preds don’t play hard enough or hustle enough because they are so reliant on Rinne to save the day…when Rinne stumbles like he has over the last 4 games, where is the accountability for the rest of the roster. Starting Lindy would make the roster accountable and for a good stretch last year when Rinne was injured, Lindback did a fantastic job back-stopping in his absence.
Anytime the Preds have back to back games, Lindback should start one of the two. I’m not sure how many starts that would give him, but I’d also say anytime there are several games in a short span of time like four games in a seven day span. Ultimately, I think the work load should be distributed 1:5. Lindback should get get at least 15 starts. I’d say 18 tops. If Rinne is struggling in a game…pull him! Trotz will figure it out. Preds will be back in the playoffs end of season. Just a bad phase right now. They’ll snap out of it.
Hope you are right…as far as Trotz \figuring it out\ I can’t figure him out and why he busted up the 33/15/27 line when Legwand came back…is it coincidence we haven’t won a game since then?
“So far in the 2011-2012 season, Rinne has posted a 10-7-4 record with a 2.47 GAA and a .925 Sv%. These numbers are good enough that Rinne should finally get the All-Star nod that has snubbed him over the last two seasons. ”
I think many times people fail to appreciate just how inflated goaltending numbers have become around the league over the last 20 years. If those stats are relevant to evaluating a goalie, this is what I see:
A guy who has lost more games than he’s won (caveat: I don’t give a hoot about a goalie’s Win/Loss record)
The 20th-ranked GAA among goalies with at least 10 Games Played.
The 14th-ranked Save Percentage among goalies with at least 10 Games Played.
That doesn’t spell All-Star to me…
But overall, I definitely agree that Pekka needs to play a bit less, if only to keep Lindback fresh and give the Preds more data to evaluate his true value as an NHL player.
Of course, he’s first in the league (.933) in even strength save percentage, which a lot of folks consider to be the most reliable existing measure of a goalie’s performance, because it eliminates certain variables and still has plenty of data to back it up. And that’s after those four losses in a row. But can we please stop measuring goalies in wins? Goalies don’t score, and teams that don’t score don’t win. Period. I know you said you don’t care about it and yet you still used it to assert he’s not worthy of being an All-Star.
The only reason I mentioned wins was because I was quoting the article. I totally agree that it’s about the most worthless of the heavily-cited stats out there, and unfortunately, it still carries a ton of weight.
I know. But it makes me crazy.
And if you look at goalies with at least 10 GP, Peks is actually 11th in Even Strength Save %.
Dirk, (I can’t post a reply to you for some reason) How did you get that nhl.com stats page to show how many games played ? Because I swear that was the page I was looking at yesterday, sorted by even strength save percentage and Peks was right up there at the top. But it’s clearly not.
I need a tutorial in how to use the stupid websites that have all the stupid data that I’m trying to teach myself to understand, because I am stupid about this stuff.
Nothing special, just clicked for Individual Stats, then Goalies, then Special Teams, then the EV Save % column. Sometimes NHL.com can get a bit wonky, so perhaps it was a temporary issue on their end?
NHL.com isn’t as bad as ESPN.com’s NHL pages, their whole database is screwy…