General Disarray
Registered User
He is 8-1, 2.04 GAA, .930 SP. Those are elite numbers. He has his team first in the division. Is he the real deal? Have the Flames finally found an elite goalie?
Is Rittich the real deal?
- Thread starter General Disarray
- Start date
Scrantonicity 2
Not a Generational Poster
- Mar 7, 2016
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Quickly lock this please before the jinx takes effect.
Goalies go on stretches like this all the time...
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S.S. Giggy
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Tkachuky
Registered User
StevenB
Registered User
Very few people outside the flames fan base have seen him for more than one game so I highly doubt you’ll get a better answer here than you can get on the flames board
SKRusty
Napalm
- Jan 20, 2016
- 2,611
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Rittich is a back-up. Everybody was going on about Grubauer all last season. Went into the play-offs as the starting goaltender and then came the resounding thud. Holtby came in and the Caps won the cup.
The Av's believed in all the hoopla and where is he now? 0.896 save percentage.
Rittich is a back-up on a good run. Completely wasted thread.
The Av's believed in all the hoopla and where is he now? 0.896 save percentage.
Rittich is a back-up on a good run. Completely wasted thread.
Todd from Leduc
Connor “The Next Great One” McDavid
Is he elite? No, to get that tag you have to do very well for a long stretch of time. Rittich has had a red hot start to the season. I hope it continues but there's really no way of knowing if he's "the real deal" or not. He looks good out there though. Gives the team a lot of confidence. That's all anyone really expects. Would be cool if he turned into a long-term solution though.
JPeeper
Hail Satan!
- Jan 4, 2015
- 11,647
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I do enjoy the occasional well thought out rational reply, thank you.
And it is a combination of Rittich being good and the Flames defence being good, ie. keeping shots to the outside, etc. Smith was getting lit up like a Christmas tree because he couldn't stop shots that beer leaguers stop; unscreened shots from far out, dribblers that sneak past.
I'll wait and see how the season goes, but he looks a lot more poised than last year.
Lock this thread and delete it and ban this guy for good measure.
Although it didn't work out (so far) with Grubauer, there are many examples of one-time backup goalies eventually becoming starters. Two recent examples, off the top of my head, are Bishop and Jones. I'm not saying that Rittich can be a starting goalie. I really haven't watched him play much, but saying that he can't because Grubauer didn't make it isn't a very strong argument.
I'd be curious to know from those who have watched him play numerous times why he can or cannot be a starter. Over the last few days I've tried finding information about him and there isn't much out there.
He was just given the goalie death sentence... I picked him up in fantasy hockey
Bounces R Way
Registered User
I feel he's a realer deal than the real deal James Neal.
At least so far
At least so far
crackdown44
Cold milk cools down hot food
- Dec 1, 2017
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I mean he is a starter in the sense that he is better than Mike Smith but that’s not saying much
Breakers
Make Mirrored Visors Legal Again
Basically so far he's been very good in the backup role but last year when Smith got injured he wasn't that great taking the reigns.
Lots of local media saying stuff like it was his rookie season, the mental side of the game got to him last year and doesn't seem to be this year, etc. But he's only been in the starters role for a week now, so the only real answer is he has the potential but we'll have to see how he looks now that it's truly his job to lose.
What I do know is that in this recent stretch he's been phenomenal
VoluntaryDom
Formerly DominicBoltsFan / Ⓐ / ✞
For most of last season he was mostly excellent as well minus 2 or 3 games. For a rookie goaltender the team couldn’t ask for more. He was put in a tough spot at the end there with the injury to Smith, but that rough stretch there helped him grow to be better.
He’s performed about a million times better than Smith this year and I don’t see any of this as a fluke. He rarely lets shots go through him and is usually very square to the shooter and can track pucks well. You don’t get that nervous feeling when he makes a save which you haven’t seen from other Flame goaltenders like Hiller, Elliott and Smith. Rittich definitely has the potential to be a quality 1A with #1 upside from what I can see.
He’s performed about a million times better than Smith this year and I don’t see any of this as a fluke. He rarely lets shots go through him and is usually very square to the shooter and can track pucks well. You don’t get that nervous feeling when he makes a save which you haven’t seen from other Flame goaltenders like Hiller, Elliott and Smith. Rittich definitely has the potential to be a quality 1A with #1 upside from what I can see.
