The Los Angeles Kings are switching things up heading into Game 4, with Head Coach Jim Hiller switching from Cam Talbot to David Rittich as his starting goalies. This comes after the Oilers have put up 16 goals in three games on Talbot to start the series. Edmonton’s familiarity with Talbot has played a factor, but the Kings, who are normally known for being stingy defensively, have been exposed by the Oilers’ attack.
Rittich no stranger to the Oilers
Rittich isn’t an unknown factor to Edmonton either, as the 31-year-old Czech native was a regular for the Calgary Flames prior to the pandemic. He is 5–5–1 in 13 games against the Oilers in his career, to go with a 2.73 goals against average and a save percentage of .904. In the playoffs, Rittich has started once and came in relief in another game, but it has been a rough go for him, posting a a 0–2–0 record with a GAA of 15.17 and a .636 SV% in the playoffs in his career.
Since Phoenix Copley went down for the season with a torn ACL, Rittich has been able to stablize his career with the Kings. Rittich played 24 games this season, posting a .921 SV%, +1.99 dFSV%, and 18.18 Goals Saved Above Expected. That GSAx mark placed him 11th in the league, but on a per 60 basis, Rittich had .799 GSAx/60, which placed sixth among goalies with more than five games played. On a per shot basis, Rittich was fourth among goalies with five games played, saving .878 goals per 30 shots. It was definitely a solid season for Rittich.
However, Rittich was clearly the second option for the Kings behind Talbot during the regular season. 11 of his 24 games came against playoff teams. In those games, he still managed a +9.23 GSAx, and a .926 SV%.
There’s not any major statistical holes in Rittich’s game this year, but the lack of playoff success could be an interesting point to look at. But with the Oilers familiarity with Rittich’s here’s how they’ll probably attack him.
Getting Rittich To bite on the shot
Just like Talbot, Rittich is susceptible to trusting the typically strong Kings defensive environment, getting puck focused on the shot, leaving him exposed to cross ice passes. The Oilers have feasted on these chances so far this series, scoring nine on Talbot through three games. When the Oilers played Rittich in L.A. on February 10, they didn’t really test him, but the one big save he made on Corey Perry had him scrambling to get back after biting on a shot.
Rittich got scored on during the rematch on February 26 in Edmonton, with McDavid finding Hyman on the back door.
The first two goals the Flames scored on Rittich during his March 30 start would also fall under this category. Additionally, it looks like when Rittich feels he’s behind the play, he gets caught chasing, with the MacKenzie Weegar goal in the Flames game and Jamie Benn goal in the Dallas Stars game having him out of position after pre shot puck movement. Once again this happened on the first,
Dealing with traffic and shots to the gloves
Rittich is a big body at 6’4″. However, a review of his video shows that he doesn’t handle traffic the best. In the February 26 game, the second goal was a tip through his legs from Leon Draisaitl in the slot while Evan Bouchard beat him clean with a screen for the third goal.
The third goal the Flames scored ended up being a pass that Rittich had no idea was coming because he never saw it, while the final goal had Rittich sliding out of position trying to gain a sightline on Weegar.
During his start in Dallas on March 16, the second and third Stars goals saw Rittich get beat clean over his glove with partial obstructions of the release from the high slot from Craig Smith and Wyatt Johnston.
Rittich’s weakness with traffic is shown by his higher rate of goals against from near the blue line. In terms of to the gloves, private numbers show that just over the blocker pad, high glove and under his glove arm are areas to target.
How Edmonton can outplay Rittich
The areas to target Rittich look very similar to the ways the Oilers were targetting Talbot so far in the series. The Kings typically run a real tight defensive zone structure and neutral zone defence with their 1-3-1, but when that breaks down, the Czech goaltender is vulnerable to being beat from distance on his gloves, along with biting hard on shots and leaving himself exposed to back door passes. Rittich does skate better than Talbot, so he should have a better time trying to get back, but he doesn’t track or react as well, so mixing in more shots could help amplifying the Oilers attack.
Rittich also doesn’t handle traffic well, getting caught on passes he doesn’t see, tips he doesn’t pick up, or beat by shots he wasn’t ready for. Based on the public and private models, Rittich is a better option than Talbot statistically, but if the Oilers can continue pulling the Kings defence apart, neither goalie has the skillset to steal the series for Los Angeles.
