Pekka Rinne's slim Vezina hopes hinge on Carey Price showdown
Is there truly a Vezina Trophy battle Tuesday night between the Nashville Predators and Montreal Canadiens? No, not really.
In absence of a major meltdown, Carey Price is going to win the award – which is chosen by the NHL’s general managers. Pekka Rinne has been lights out most of the year, but unless say Price gives up six goals Tuesday and Rinne has a 50-save shutout against Montreal, this award has basically been decided.
In case there are some GMs who haven’t thought long and hard on the award yet, it’s at least a good spot for Rinne to restart his candidacy and mount a charge on Price.
Said Rinne to the Montreal Gazette:
“It’s two points for either team,” Nashville’s star goaltender said with a grin, knowing that wasn’t what a small gathering of notebooks and microphones had come to record.
“It’s going to be a fun game,” Rinne continued. “Obviously, Price is one of the better goalies in the league. He’s a great goalie, a guy I like a lot and have a lot of respect for. It’s always fun to face one of the top guys.”
Rinne has a 2.09 goals against average. His .927 save percentage ranks fifth in the NHL. His 38 wins rank second – in spite of him missing time with a knee injury. In most years, Rinne would be the obvious choice. A majority of us chose him as our Vezina and Hart Trophy guy at the midpoint of the season. But since then a bit of a Predators malaise combined with Price’s play (and his on-ice personality) have pushed the award toward the pride of Anahim Lake, British Columbia.
From Feb. 19 through March 5, Rinne allowed on average 3.29 goals per-game. During that time he went 1-5-1. During that same stretch, Price allowed 1.86 goals per-game and went 4-1-2.
And recently he has bolstered his chances with some sweet on-ice PR with maybe the greatest NHL in-game selfie ever taken. Rinne countered with an astronaut/space jersey thing – which was still cool, but not quite the same. At very least we’ve been able to determine both goalies are good dudes.
There are still some games left this year, but at this point of the season, GMs minds are made up, or not since they seem to ask for major sweeping rule changes every year. Is there a more crazy ‘Stonecutterish’ group in sports when they show up for their annual meetings?
OK, regardless, Nashville’s hopes do live and die with the 6-foot-5 Finnish netminder. If offense makes a mistake and there’s an odd-man rush, he makes a stop at the other end.
Again from The Gazette:
He is a vital part of the Predators’ portrait, a popular, marketable star in the realm of captain and Norris Trophy candidate Shea Weber, leading scorer Filip Forsberg and, to a lesser degree, erstwhile enfant terrible Mike Ribeiro, who’s enjoying a fine season on the tracks off of which he has often derailed himself.
Not that Price is any different with Montreal, but if Rinne wants a shot at hardware, Tuesday’s his chance to get back in the race.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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