The Nashville Predators continue to find different ways to win this season, but Pekka Rinne’s been oddly up-and-down. Count this as a “down” night as Rinne was pulled from the Nashville net for the fourth time in 2011-12 after allowing three Dallas Stars goals in just 12:30 of game time.
Rinne didn’t have a great night on Thursday, either, as he allowed five goals but got the win after Nashville produced an improbable comeback.
If his play follows recent trends, then things could get ugly for a while. You can break Rinne’s season into good and bad chunks:
Oct. 7-8: 2-0-0
Oct. 13-25: 1-4-1
Oct. 27-Nov. 17: 7-0-2
Nov. 19-Dec. 6: 0-5-0 (with one no-decision in which he allowed five goals in half of a game)
Dec. 8-Dec. 22: 6-0-0
It remains to be seen if Rinne will be charged with a loss, but he’s allowed eight goals in less than four periods, so it seems like he’s starting to trend down again. A lot of times streaky goalies also signify streak teams, but the good news is that Rinne’s individual stats have still been very good.
Well, at least they looked nice coming into tonight’s game ...