Why does everyone think that Rinne is the main problem?

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Seriously. I've read a lot of proposals and topics about how horrible Rinne is. Yes he's no longer elite and won't be starter material by next year (Most likely), however anyone who watches the game right now would realize Rinne has been our best player by far in every game except for the Anaheim and San Jose game, in which the team sucked as well (Well the Pittsburgh game Rinne wasn't playing). Do people not realize how bad our defense is, and how even worse our offense is? Rinne will have his rebirth whether with Nashville or with another team.

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[Armourboy]

I'm not sure there is a Rebirth coming, but for the most part he hasn't really been the problem. Poor defensive play and poor offensive play is the bigger problem. Sure he hasn't stolen anything, but I'm not sure he's been the main reason for a loss either.

This is a system that is based on the old saying " The best defense is a good offense". The idea is you keep possession of the puck on the other end of the ice and drive the play. Everything from the forwards to the Dmen is built around driving the play quickly to the other end of the ice. We aren't doing that, and even if we are we aren't doing anything with it.

Pekka may not be top 3 in the league anymore, but if the rest of the team is worth a damn he's probably been good enough.

 

[Byrddog]

Since his hip surgery Rinne's game has suffered. A big part of it has been confidence at times for sure. Another factor has been the coaching and system change. Prior to Lavi Trotz system required defensemen and forwards to support the goalie. This was especially apparent last season effecting his GAA and especially his SV%. In the 08-08 and 09-10 season he also had career highs in shutouts with 7. In 13-14 after his surgery his numbers started to take a hit, this was also the time period the Klein was traded for MDZ and Lavi and Poile started the transformation of the defense. 14-15 with a 2.18 and 9.23 everyone myself included was optimistic the old Rinne had returned yet he had just 4 shutouts that season. This period was also the time when we started talking about his and Webers window for a cup run. Generally most agreed it was a two year period at best. The4 next year, last year his numbers tumbled huis GAA jumped .30 and his SV% dropped from .923 to .908. So has it been the system that has effected his numbers, the hip period or just plain age? Well its probably all of the above, and this has impacted his confidence as well. Is he totally done no he will likely have streaks where he is solid and stretches of sub .910 play. With two more season on his contract unless he retires there is little the team can do but stand with him. Poile has thru his actions of not improving the back-up proven this.

Rinne has been a favorite of mine thru his time period in Nashville. But many forget what he has done in the past and are ready to throw him under the bus now that he has aged and is starting to struggle. But unless Poile trades him which is unlikely with his cap hit or he retires not much can be done to improve the situation for the team. Yes a veteran back-up could be brought in for 30 games to platoon but that would cost 3 mil plus and put the goalie budget over 10 mil. But something Poile would do. I would hope that Rinne recognizes his situation and if he continues to hover from .900 to .910 this year he calls it a career. For the teams sake but again I doubt he does that. The hope that he will return to .920 performance and sub 2.5 GAA well that ship has sailed. Now the team must score 3 or more goals per game to offset his regression.

 

[Soundgarden]

I think a big question is how many people actually watch our team play?
What are the odds that the only games most people saw of us were the two against their team and some of the playoffs?
Remember when everybody on the main boards said non-hyperbolicly that Weber was finished after the Sharks series yet failed to mention how he looked for the majority of the regular season + the Ducks series?

Seriously, Rinne looked awful for a myriad of reasons the first half last year and picked it up a little in the 2nd half before the whole team shut down vs. the Sharks. He's looked fine in some games this year, but some of the goals he's let in are really disappointing. He's getting older and I think this is the last realistic year for him as starter for the whole year.

 

[LeafingTheWay]

Seriously. I've read a lot of proposals and topics about how horrible Rinne is. Yes he's no longer elite and won't be starter material by next year (Most likely), however anyone who watches the game right now would realize Rinne has been our best player by far in every game except for the Anaheim and San Jose game, in which the team sucked as well (Well the Pittsburgh game Rinne wasn't playing). Do people not realize how bad our defense is, and how even worse our offense is? Rinne will have his rebirth whether with Nashville or with another team.

How is the D bad?

 

[Armourboy]

How is the D bad?

Our defense as a whole, both forwards and Dmen has been just down right horrible. So so many blown coverages that have led to break aways, easy tap ins, or screens so thick you wouldn't even know a puck had been shot. Overall it's been pretty rough.

A good example is the 3rd San Jose goal last night. Sure it was lucky bounce into open ice, but the reason it was so open was that no one picked up the San Jose player coming through neutral ice, so when it did kick out all he had to do was basically wrist it into an open back side.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

I think a big question is how many people actually watch our team play?
What are the odds that the only games most people saw of us were the two against their team and some of the playoffs?
Remember when everybody on the main boards said non-hyperbolicly that Weber was finished after the Sharks series yet failed to mention how he looked for the majority of the regular season + the Ducks series?

Seriously, Rinne looked awful for a myriad of reasons the first half last year and picked it up a little in the 2nd half before the whole team shut down vs. the Sharks. He's looked fine in some games this year, but some of the goals he's let in are really disappointing. He's getting older and I think this is the last realistic year for him as starter for the whole year.

He's allowed some mep goals, but has made a lot of good saves, and isn't to be blamed on a lot of the goals. My main criticism for Rinne especially last year was his inability to make a big save that counted. "Oh breakaway, tap in, or heavy screen? Don't count on Weber or Josi to recover from their mistake nor for Rinne to make a game saving stop anymore." Heck even Hiller made more big saves last year... Also Weber as great as he is and is missed is not going to be great forever and will start to get ugly after 6 years. Weber was a monster at preventing the opponent from getting too close to the net and getting a dangerous shot, and he was fantastic with his slapshot. He also rarely made big mistakes. However Weber had average mobility by normal Dman standards aka terrible by elite standards. Weber also has one of the worst recovery abilities in the league. Karlsson and Subban who are both criticized for bad defense fared far better in recovering their mistakes. Also Weber didn't have the ability to completely alter reality in a game unlike Keith, Doughty, or Karlsson.

 

[LeafingTheWay]

Our defense as a whole, both forwards and Dmen has been just down right horrible. So so many blown coverages that have led to break aways, easy tap ins, or screens so thick you wouldn't even know a puck had been shot. Overall it's been pretty rough.

A good example is the 3rd San Jose goal last night. Sure it was lucky bounce into open ice, but the reason it was so open was that no one picked up the San Jose player coming through neutral ice, so when it did kick out all he had to do was basically wrist it into an open back side.

Agreed, but I've put most of the blame on the Fs. That goal and many others were because of poor coverage by the Fs. That goal especially, the Fs lost track of two players going to the net for the open puck.
The Fs seem disinterested both defensively and offensively when playing (other than Arvidsson, Fiala, and someone else I forgot).

 

[LCPreds]

Rinne hasn't been awesome but I'll start blaming Rinne when we're losing while consistently scoring more than 1 goal. Seems we may be waiting a while on that.

 

[belle]

It's easier to blame the goalie because it is a single athlete in a critical row.

Rinne has made some mistakes. In fairness that's not the sole reason the Preds are not winning. We are accustom to him stealing a game and he is not doing that right now. But gone are the days the Preds play to win a 1-0 game. If the team is going to play and win "high octane" they are going to need to pick it up on the forecheck, improve their possession time and cycle, and SCORE. None of which are Pekka's role.

 

[wadesworld]

Rinne has not been THE problem. Piss-poor defense has been a contributing factor. But Rinne's overplaying of the puck has not helped matters. You can't get back to block shot B when you overplayed shot A so much.

 

[bdub24]

Rinne hasn't been awesome but I'll start blaming Rinne when we're losing while consistently scoring more than 1 goal. Seems we may be waiting a while on that.

Excellent perspective! Thanks..this has me coming off the downer I have been on re: him. Appreciate it!

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Rinne has not been THE problem. Piss-poor defense has been a contributing factor. But Rinne's overplaying of the puck has not helped matters. You can't get back to block shot B when you overplayed shot A so much.

Seems Rinne is trying to freeze the puck too often which leads to a goal on the initial shot.

 

[NSH615]

Seems Rinne is trying to freeze the puck too often which leads to a goal on the initial shot.

or in the case of Saturday night. He likes to come out of his net WAY TOO often. Saturday night he came way out to try to poke check the puck rather than let the defenseman do his job. This caused chaos and a goal was scored within 30 seconds or so.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

or in the case of Saturday night. He likes to come out of his net WAY TOO often. Saturday night he came way out to try to poke check the puck rather than let the defenseman do his job. This caused chaos and a goal was scored within 30 seconds or so.

Well Elliott likes to NOT come out of his net WAY TOO often. Seriously a lot of times Elliott could have easily played the puck when no one was near and pass it to the D and help start a breakout especially as Flames D have fantastic breakouts, but no he opts to stay in his crease hoping it's an icing, oh and what do you know it's a breakaway and hey guess what a goal...

 

[NSH615]

Well Elliott likes to NOT come out of his net WAY TOO often. Seriously a lot of times Elliott could have easily played the puck when no one was near and pass it to the D and help start a breakout especially as Flames D have fantastic breakouts, but no he opts to stay in his crease hoping it's an icing, oh and what do you know it's a breakaway and hey guess what a goal...

When Pekka comes out to "Try" to stop the puck behind the net, I'd say about 80% of the time he barely slows it down as he misses it. Saturday night though, just before that 2nd goal allowed, he came charging out to the circle when a defenseman was right there and could have handled it, the end result about 15-30 seconds later was a goal scored from all the chaos that created.

 

[Gh24]

I haven't been as concerned about his play outside the crease as some of you have. Until last game. Earlier he's had maybe one of those situations in a single game where you could read " s*** s*** s*** " out of his bodylanguage, but last game it was several times.

I hope it's just one game or I'm going to be missing more heartbeats in the future.