Too bad it’s the other guy, the one on the bench.
Antero Niittymaki has the best post-season save percentage of any netminder in the NHL. He’s faced 30 shots in parts of two games, stopping all but one of them, and if you do the math, that’s .967. […] Niittymaki also has the NHL’s best goals against average for the playoffs at 0.66. But he also says he totally understands why Antti Niemi is getting the start tonight in Game 6. […] “It’s playoffs, things happen,” the backup continued, “he’s bounced back before and I have no problem with that.”
[…] Lots of follow-up questions for Todd McLellan today on his decision to go with Antti Niemi tonight […] “You can pull a defenseman or a forward off and send a message real quick, but usually he’s going to get back out there,” McLellan said. “The goaltender is the one that gets welded to the bench unfortunately. […] You’re not just pulling a goaltender because of his performance. You’re pulling him to wake the rest of the group up and send a message,” he added. “That’s also been the case in our scenario.”
McLellan added that Niittymaki isn’t a “forgotten man.”