Rick Dipietro Banking on Bridgeport Bounce Back

Rick Dipietro’s humbling has been an enduring one for the once cocky net minder. In the last five seasons Dipietro has won fourteen of his fifty appearances and has averaged a .885 save percentage alongside a goals against average of over three. On top of all of that the injury prone goaltender will now be making saves in Bridgeport for the Islanders affiliate team the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

“It felt like someone ripped out my heart, stuck a knife in it then lit it on fire and flushed it down the toilet,” commented Dipietro on being sent down to the minors. Though he is understandably frustrated with going down to the minors, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Rick who has gone 0-3 this year with a .855 save percentage and 4.09 goals against.

The good news is that there are twenty-eight games left in the AHL regular season which will give Rick the opportunity to play lots of games without the pressure of Islanders fans who want to see more bang for their buck. He should at least get twenty of those games and hopefully he can get back into the groove of playing back to back games. If so, maybe he’ll get some confidence and be back up next season (if not this one).

Being sent to the AHL might seem like a career set back but it’s been known to rejuvenate lots of careers, just look at Brian Boucher of the Philadelphia Flyers. From 2006 to 2007 Brian was going around like the common cold. He played for Columbus, Chicago, Calgary and Phoenix and struggled with all of them. The highly touted first round pick’s career looked like it was winding down but then in 2008 he got the main job playing for the Philadelphia Phantoms. Boucher was magnificent for them that year, playing forty-two games, and was signed by San Jose during the season, bringing him back to the NHL. It’s not entirely impossible for Dipietro to do the exact same thing. The only difference is that if Rick finds his game there’s no doubt he’ll take the net away from Nabokov, which Boucher wasn't able to do.

Hopefully Rick can get back to all-star status, or at least functional backup, and give the Islanders some value for their dollar. This shouldn't be hard for him now because the only injury he seems to have is the one to his confidence. He once was a bright star but don’t think for a second that he’s faded away. He’s still got something left in the tank and at thirty-one he’s still got time to find it.