Photo Credit: http://dinamominsk.info/
When the lockout began almost 45 days ago, Predators fans wondered when they would get a chance to see some of the favorite players: Shea Weber, Patric Hornqvist, Martin Erat, and of course Pekka Rinne. With Rinne darting to the KHL for the time being until the CBA is agreed upon, most of us figured the Finnish dynamo would be head-and-shoulders above the competition overseas and show the world outside of Finland and the NHL why he’s one of the best goaltenders in the world.
As of this post, Pekka Rinne is the worst goaltender in the entire KHL.
Take a second and read it sentence one more time:
Pekka Rinne is the worst goaltender in the entire KHL
Stings, doesn’t it? Now, it doesn’t help when his defensemen in front of him have a combined +/- of -26 and it surely doesn’t help when you are a goaltender and you find yourself way out of position trying to play a puck on the far edge of the rink (See the video here). However, let’s check out Rinne’s stats and see for ourselves:
Record? 5-6-0. Well, that’s not too bad.
Save Percentage? 90.6%. Well….that’s kinda bad. (Dead last in the KHL)
Goals Against Average? 2.78. Yikes. (31 of 32 in the KHL)
If this were last season in the NHL, his GAA would put him between Richard Bachman and Ray Emery for 62nd in the league while his Save Percentage ties him with Ondrej Pavelec of the Winnipeg Jets for 60th in the league.
So, what’s wrong with Rinne? Is the fact that he doesn’t have NHL world-class defensemen in front of him masking his inabilities to play goal? I don’t buy that.
While having Shea Weber and Ryan Suter in front of him definitely helps to keep the puck away from the net and less traffic overall, Rinne still made incredible save after save when the puck was most definitely going to reach the back of the net last season, and most times when Weber/Suter weren’t even on the ice. So scratch that excuse.
Could it be the decrease in speed from the NHL to the KHL? It’s possible. While that seems a likely culprit, I’m still not sure I even buy that. KHL players are still extremely good hockey players, however the larger ice surface slows down the game considerably due to the excessive amount of space of the international ice rink size compared to a regulation NHL ice rink.
However, the speed change in the game could definitely be the culprit if you truly think about the reasons behind it. Compare it to when your driving. Say you’re used to driving 70 miles an hour, but your interstate changed it’s speed limit to 50 miles an hour (a norm 60 years ago when the interstate system didn’t exist). You would feel like you’re driving at the pace of a snail, correct?
Perhaps the same thing is happening here.
While we don’t know for sure (and most NHL fans aren’t paying attention to the KHL currently) it’s staggering to see Pekka Rinne, a usual front-runner for Vezina favorite the past few years, be at the very bottom of the KHL’s stat leaders. While there could be plenty of reasons behind it, Preds fans have fair reason to worry if the loss of Ryan Suter will definitely impact the play of Pekka Rinne when the NHL returns.
Am I worried? No, not until the season starts and we see if Weber/Klein/Josi/Ellis/Gill/Hannan can effectively play the same level of defense (maybe better) that we’ve seen from the Predators over the past few seasons. Until then, though, it’s quite strange to hear the words “Pekka Rinne” and “worst goaltender” in the same sentence and it be a statistically accurate fact.
I heard this myself and my first thought was just about everything you put in this article. Slower pace, less frantic, bad defensemen in front of him…it might also be the case that he’s just slumping bad, really. Truth is that Pekka seems to shine the more frantic and chaotic a game is, and most KHL games don’t seem to get that way. Just hope he gets better when he comes back home.
I think the slower game and bigger ice surface have hurt him considerably. It also doesn’t help that he has little support from D. He’s taking way fewer shots too and Pekka has said numerous times that the more shots he takes the better he plays..it gets him into a zone. Regardless of his stats, Dinamo fans seem to love him and other KHL players still refer to him as the best goalie in the world. Half to know hes being treated respectfully.
Slower pace, more time and space for shooters to set up, and different tells for shots. KHL goalies tend to have lower sv % w similar GAA because shooters are pickier about what shots they take. It’s like facing a team full of Sergei Kostitsyns every game.
From watching some of the games, I’d say that he’s having trouble anticipating the shots, which is exactly what you’d expect. But at the same time, they leave him alone back there for long stretches of the game. It’s just a different team with different players and a different style.
I will note this, however. If you got this “worst in the league” from the KHL goalie stats page, that only lists the top 30 goalies. So he’s 30th, but not worst in the league. for instance, Kevin Lalande, who got sent down when Pekka joined Dinamo Minsk has an .858 (6 games)
Well, KHL (and the NHL as well) both list out the top/worst players in their statistics. Honestly, I go by more what the site says than all X amount of goalies. If there were 100 goalies who had all played 1 game and had much worse stats than Rinne, I would still give Rinne the mark as worst in the league because he’s had these statistics over 11 games
Mmm… I can’t go with that, either. Of guys who have played 10 games or more, 3 have lower Sv% than Pekka (all of them have played more minutes) and 5 have higher GAAs (all have played more minutes).
Don’t get me wrong. Pekka’s not doing great over there. He’s got real work to do. But he’s not the worst in the KHL.
I dont think their is any excuse for him being the WORST in the KHL. Thats just shameful. or the players are just REALLY good…perhaps better than our NHL players. Maybe we should can all the NHL players & hire the KHL folks here! what? at least we will have a season!! im willing to have college teams hired into the NHL & can the players we have crying for more money. I just want a season
Different league, different rules, different playing methods, different rink. All this and more likely plays into his stats. It’s useless to even deliver an opinion about it. Instead of showing us stats, why doesn’t someone interview him. Guess they are not that interested in understanding the whys and wherefores.
Wihtout looking at shots against per game, I would put the theory forth that Rinne does best when he can get in a groove and see a lot of shots. How long did the Preds go leading the league in shots against per game. We are near the top of that for much of the time. It is less rhythmic and that may throw him off. In the NHL, once a player gets past the blue line, you can expect a shot (playing the rebound) or a dump behind the net. It isn’t too often in the NHL that players try to make the 1v1 play or the silky pass. The extra space in the KHL gives more flexibility to the forwards.
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I think this goes to show what kind of coaching the Predators have behind the team. Mitch Korn is an incredible goalie coach and fully supports his players on and off the ice. I have a feeling that such is not the case in the KHL and when you have a goaltender that can have some really off days like Pekka had occasionally like 5-6 goals against, you really need a good support system to whip him out of the slump.
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