Nashville Predators: Pekka Rinne’s start will set season’s tone

The hockey world is filled with speculation on how each team will perform. For the Nashville Predators, if comes down to one thing: how Rinne starts.

It is a common saying, universally used. “It is not how you start, it’s how you finish,” is stated in all sorts of situations. From a marathon to how one plans for retirement. The statement is useful. However, for the Nashville Predators, the phrase should be “How Rinne starts is how we will finish.”

The offense and defense for the Predators are viable threats. There is little concern over how many of the players will perform throughout the season. The one thing you commonly hear though is Pekka Rinne is streaky. If the Predators want to make a strong play for the Central Division, Rinne must start the season strong.

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Career splits

When a player is considered “streaky,” is means they are either really good or really bad. There is little in between. That is not really fair of Rinne, but some of the stats back up that talk.

For his career, Rinne posts a record of 269 wins, 155 losses, and 62 ties. His goals against average is 2.38, with a .917 save percentage. Those numbers are respectable. When you start to divide this starts into pieces, the story deepens.

On home ice, Rinne is almost unbeatable, winning 170 of his 283 games played. The team earned ties in 37 of his home games. Save stats? Only 2.2 goals against and a .922 save percentage.

On the road, coaches hope for a split, winning 50 percent of the games. Rinne notched 99 wins while away from Nashville, but in 225 games. However, he only lost 87 and tied 25. That means in 14 games, Rinne did not factor in the decision. He either entered the game late or was pulled.

When you look into his stats per month, October is where we see Rinne struggle a bit. In his career, he won less than 50% of all games played in the season’s opening month. From November to February, those numbers improve to at least 50%.

Now, realize we are talking wins over games played, not wins and losses. Why? Because, just like pitchers in baseball, records do not tell the entire story.

Just how streaky?

Well. Rinne is really streaky. Here are his save percentages and goals against for each month.

October: .919 SV%, 2.39 GAA

November: .923 SV%, 2.17 GAA

December: .908 SV%, 2.69 GAA

January: .923 SV%, 2.20 GAA

February: .923 SV%, 2.24 GAA

March: .912 SV%, 2.48 GAA

April: .914 SV%, 2.53 GAA

By reviewing those stats, you see that Rinne starts slow, improves, declines, gets better, and declines again. With that said, his performance in the second half last season helped propel the team to the playoffs.

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Do I believe in Rinne? Yes. I want him on that wall. The Nashville Predators need him on that wall. However, getting off to a stronger start would be helpful. Starting off with one win and four losses like last year will not work.