Being a back up goalie to Carey Price is not an easy task. Price is a workhorse and starts are few and far between in a role that is undefined at the best of times. Antti Niemi shone in that role last year, proving to many people his career wasn’t quite over yet. It wasn’t always pretty, but the results and numbers were there in many of his starts. When they weren’t, it was okay — he was just the back up and the team was near the bottom of the league.
This year is a bit of a different story.