Antero Niittymaki, It’s His Time
After last night’s game, I think it’s time that Ken Hitchcock gives his vote of confidence for goaltender to Antero Niittymaki. Nitty helped the Flyers bring home a 2-1 win over the Atlantic division rival New Jersey Devils last night at the Wachovia Center. In my opinion, Nitty has shown he has what it takes to lead this Flyers squad during the playoffs.
There is just something about the Flyers when Antero Niittymaki is in net. The team appears to play different when Nitty is back in goal, and it seems that Nitty somehow always makes a big save to make up for a defensive zone mistake. Another reason that I love Nitty in net simply is his glove hand. Antero consistently makes huge momentum saves with his glove that you only see from the elite goaltenders in the NHL. Additionally, you can really see the Flyers fans supporting and cheering Niittymaki’s every save. Whereas when Esche is in net, it seems like the crowd is almost in anticipation of Esche’s next mistake rather than trying to root for Esche’s success.
As a person who is a firm believer in playoff experience being a huge factor in playoff success, I would generally say that Esche deserves the nod in net. Esche has more playoff experience than Nitty and even led the Flyers all the way up to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals 2 years ago. However, this year I am deciding to go against my usual instincts and say that Niittymaki should be the starter in net come playoff time. Furthermore, I don’t see a problem with Hitch going with a playoff tag team of Nitty and Esche as long as Niittymaki gets at least 80% of the starts. It could be good to give Antero some rest every once and a while, especially since your backup goaltender has previous playoff success.
I imagine that Hitch will make his playoff goaltender decision within the next week or two since the NHL playoffs begin April 21st. I could easily see Hitchcock going either way with this choice depending on the upcoming play of the 2 goaltenders but I really think that Hitch will choose Niittymaki to be his netminder when it gets down to the Nitty-gritty.
- Kyle Garis
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Posted on March 22, 2006 by Kyle Garis | Filed Under Flyers, Philadelphia
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Kyle, I totally agree. He just seems to exude more confidence than Esche and you are right that the whole team seems to play better around him.
BTW, I like the “Nitty-gritty” thing. Maybe that should be his Philly Sports Net nickname from here on out:-)
No offense towards Esche, but I fully agree. Esche just doesn’t have that clutch goalie game. It seems that when the chips are down and something big has to be done, Esche can’t do it. Nitty, however, is nothing but clutch. I watched him play every playoff game last year during the Phantoms cup run and he was so calm, cool, and collected during the whole playoffs. Let’s hope the rest of the Flyers can keep up…
Oh man, whatever you do, dont use nitty-gritty! The last time that they used that on tv was before the Carolina game where they lost 8-6. Basically, that nickname doesnt bring luck.
But anyway, i love Niittymaki so much. His style of play is something that i adore and would like to have when im out playing hockey. He’s so calm and composed and nothing seems to shake him. Esche let’s his emotions get the best of him, which i have never seen with niittymaki, ever since ive been following him for almost the past 3 years.