Ahead of the game on Thursday, the LA Kings made the surprising decision to start David Rittich instead of Darcy Kuemper against the Colorado Avalanche. While Kuemper has been playing a lot recently, he has been playing at such a high level it would have made sense to have him net in a big test against one of the top teams in the Western Conference.
Instead, the Kings went with the backup Rittich who had been struggling but was coming off his best game in a while when he allowed only two goals against the Carolina Hurricanes. After the game on Thursday against the Avs, Hiller explained the decision to start Rittich and that last performance played a factor in the start:
"He’s coming off that game against Carolina, we didn’t want to, based on that performance, didn’t want to push him out too long, we knew he was going to get in. We knew this would be a tough game, we thought, you know what, let’s let him try to build on the Carolina game and see if he can come in here and steal us one. It certainly wasn’t on him. If you score zero goals, you’re not going to win."
Game script seemed to play a factor on David Rittich's performance for the LA Kings
As Hiller noted after the game, if you score zero goals you're not going to win and the way the game played out was very different than the one against the Hurricanes. In that game, the Kings would take the lead three minutes into the game and build a 6-0 lead before the Hurricanes scored their first goal in the second period.
On Thursday night, the game would be tied after the first period and once the Avalanche scored that first goal it didn't seem like the Kings or Rittich could recover to get the lead back. There is no question that Rittich was under a lot of pressure to keep it close and with the Kings unable to score, it was not going to be a winning formula.
While Darcy Kuemper should be playing a majority down the stretch, it is hard to imagine him playing back-to-back games coming up. On Saturday, the Kings play the Toronto Maple Leafs followed by the San Jose Sharks on Sunday. They only have one day off before they play the Winnipeg Jets at home.
The Kings probably will set it up in a way that Kuemper will start against the Maple Leafs and Jets with Rittich getting the start against the Sharks. Hopefully Rittich can bounce back at home or this position could become a concern for the Kings heading into the playoffs.