Pekka Rinne Over the last two years, Pekka Rinne has been an elite NHL netminder. He will probably win the Vezina trophy this year, but his year didn’t end the way he or anyone else expected.
In an odd series that saw only two games finish as one-goal games (All others had a deficit of at least three), the goaltending was the story for the wrong reasons. Rinne ended up getting pulled in three of four home games and ended up with an .899 Sv% in the series. He had entered the game on a highnote, shutting out the Jets in Game 6, but quickly left Game 7 after allowing two goals on seven shots in just over ten minutes.
It’s not the way anyone expected the series to end and it’s definitely not the way Rinne wanted it to end. At the end of the night, he tried to blame himself for the team’s loss.
Being a goalie is not for the faint of heart. When you win, you don’t often get the credit – when you lose, you will. When you get pulled from a game like this one, you feel helpless.
Being a goalie is often all about percentages and Rinne may have bounced back after those two goals and given his team a chance, but he was never given the opportunity. That’s not to say the wrong move was made, because neither of the first two goals were particularly strong.
Both goals were from sharp angles that usually won’t go in and it ended Rinne’s season in heartbreaking fashion. Of course, his teammates and coaches came to his defence after the game, explaining how Rinne was a big reason for why they were there in the first place. It’s not likely to make Rinne feel any better and probably the only thing that will is a little time.
Being a goalie is a tough job, especially in moments like these ones.
