Despite how they’ve played for lengthy stretches of the 2019-20 season, the Calgary Flames are in the thick of the Stanley Cup playoff race. A good amount of credit for that has to go to the goaltending tandem of David Rittich and Cam Talbot. While neither man has been perfect, both has had strong stretches of play and given the Flames a chance to win frequently.
With 12 games left on the docket, the question remains: who gets the bulk of the starts between now and Game 82?
At one point in the season, Rittich was one of the most-used goaltenders in the NHL. He was also one of the best, representing the Flames at the NHL All-Star Game in St. Louis. But Rittich’s numbers have taken a dip lately and he hasn’t registered a victory at home since Dec. 12.
On the other hand, Talbot has really found a nice rhythm in net. He’s won a lot lately and he’s recovered from a rough start to post a win-loss record north of .500 – a nice thing to have in a veteran backup.
Recently, Talbot’s been the better goaltender. Over the last 10 games, they’ve split the starts five and five – Rittich faced Detroit, Boston, Nashville, Tampa Bay and Vegas while Talbot logged Anaheim, Boston, Florida, Columbus and Arizona. The difficulty level of the starts were about even all things considered.
The performances?
- Rittich went 2-2-1 with a 3.22 goals against average, .899 save percentage and .919 even strength save percentage
- Talbot went 4-1-0 with a 2.38 goals against average, .918 save percentage and .905 even strength save percentage
The big difference? Rittich allowed five goals on special teams – three power play, two shorthanded – while Talbot had a sterling special teams performance with zero against. At five on five, Rittich is the superior goalie, but Talbot has been more effective collectively.
The Flames are coming out of a stretch of three days off. Starting with Thursday’s outing against the New York Islanders, they’ll play their final 12 games over 24 days – they play one set of back-to-backs and they have one stretch of two days between games, but otherwise it’s a game every other night until the bitter end.
Given the performances of the two goaltenders – recently and collectively – what’s the ideal way to divvy up the final dozen games? Sure, the back-to-back next week in Manhattan and Brooklyn will obviously be split up, but otherwise what split gives the Flames the best chance of success?
What would you do? Sound off in the comments!
