The writing was on the wall for Mark Dekanich when Anders Lindback played the entire 60 minutes on Wednesday night.
Today, the Nashville Predators made it official.
Dekanich has been assigned to the AHL-affiliate Milwaukee Admirals which leaves Lindback, at least at the moment, as the back-up to Pekka Rinne this coming season. With Lindback at 6’6″ and Rinne at 6’5″, the Predators now have the tallest goaltending tandem in the NHL, prompting fans on Twitter to use the hash-tag “#twintowers” when referencing them.
While it’s still not out of the question that General Manager David Poile goes out and signs a more experienced guy like Jose Theodore to back-up Rinne, it appears as if Lindback has won the job. He appeared in three games so far this pre-season, and stopped 54 of 58 shots.
To further that point, Head Coach Barry Trotz told the Tennessean’s Bryan Mullen that “the decision would be today that we would have (Dekanich) go to Milwaukee and Lindback would start here.”
Dekanich played in just two pre-season games, neither of which was a full 60 minutes, and allowed two goals on just 14 shots.
While some would’ve said the team’s decision was obvious following last night’s game in Atlanta, the decision must have been a hard one for the Preds. Both Dekanich and Lindback participated in practice today.
Rinne is slated to go the distance against the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon in Nashville’s final pre-season contest.