It's often much tougher for NHL goalies the second time around.
Antti Raanta is about to find out if that is true. Earlier in the season, Raanta was called up from the Chicago Blackhawks' minor-league affiliate in Rockford to serve as their backup netminder when veteran goalie Nikolai Khabibulin went down for the season with a shoulder injury.
Those needs were exacerbated when Corey Crawford suffered a lower-body injury that kept him out of action for several weeks during the first half of the season. Raanta played in 19 games for the Blackhawks (starting 17 of them) and built a 12-2-3 record with a 2.40 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.
Those are decent numbers and the Blackhawks were relatively happy with his performance, in large part because Raanta played well enough to keep the team winning.
But once Crawford got healthy again, he virtually began playing every night. Raanta has not played since a Jan. 28 home game against the Calgary Flames.
That was not a very good game for Raanta.
He allowed four goals on 15 shots against the lowly Flames and was replaced by ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Steve Silverman
Will Antti Raanta Be Ready the Second Time Around?
March 11th, 2014 by Steve Silverman Leave a reply »
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