Coyotes’ Antti-hero deserves a bigger role come Vezina voting

Through nine games, Arizona Coyotes starting goaltender Antti Raanta is propelling his team to success. Too bad he plays in the NHL’s Bermuda Triangle.

Antti Raanta had found a new home. Things would be better now, surely. In February of this year,  just as quickly as he had planted foot in the desert, the first-year Arizona Coyote goalie decided it was time to move on. To some place more inviting, in the hopes of securing his health and — likely too — his sanity.

No, he didn’t leave the team. Rather, he literally fled his house because of scorpions. So after re-upping for three years in April, with a club near invisible to the casual fan, the only sting left might be finding out that Arizona is his new purgatory.

He can change that, though. In fact, if the team continues to play well — and to this point they’ve dotted five straight in the win column — there won’t be much choice beyond serving notice, to their fans and to the rest of the league.

We should be talking more about the ‘Yotes penalty kill. They’re second at 92 percent. They’ve scored a whopping seven shorthanded goals already, including two by summer acquisition Michael Grabner.

We should be talking more about their defense. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is a plus-five and the team is allowing the ninth fewest shots on goal to this point. We could discuss the offensive firepower, which hasn’t missed a beat despite saying no más to Max Domi (traded to Montreal for Alex Galchenyuk).

But really, it’s Raanta who’s commandeered this train. And much like John Gibson over in Anaheim, he might have to play Marvel character to end a six season playoff drought. But he can do it. Because the numbers, well, they don’t lie. At 29-years-old, Raanta has already amassed 150 career games between the pipes, posting a 2.28 goals against average and .922 save percentage in six seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers and now desert-dwellers.

This year? He’s even better, posting a goals against of 2.10 and save percentage of .929 through nine contests. It’s why the Coyotes awarded him an extension. It’s the wins though, that are biting. It’s the 26-21-6 record of the club in front of him that’s squashing hopes of a Vezina Trophy.

If he played in a larger market, he’d be top billing. Surely putting up a .930 save percentage in 47 games should net at least top ten voting. It didn’t. Hell, Roberto Luongo had worse numbers with only 18 wins in 2017-18, and he was tied for ninth. Something is wrong here. But we won’t act as though we don’t understand. We do. It’s the Coyotes, perpetual doormat on ice.

Yet at some point the NHL will see it. The Tampa Bay Lightning found out the hard way in a 7-1 pummeling. Raanta had 30 saves in the effort. The Carolina Hurricanes know it now as well. They scored three, but it took 51 shots to do it. Don’t worry, though. While we wait for others to come around, we’ll be sitting here quietly rooting for the desert dogs — and for Raanta — to do their thing and hopefully steamroll through the surprisingly wide-open Pacific Division.

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