All Aboard the #Pekka4Vezina Train

This much we know: Pekka Rinne is good at his job. Better than most, in fact. And to go one step further, the best goaltender in the NHL this season.
To reiterate what former Predators goaltender and current television broadcaster Chris Mason has been preaching for quite some time now, Rinne deserves the 2018 Vezina Trophy as the League's top puckstopper.
And it's not even close.

With a 4-0 shutout victory
in Buffalo on Monday night, Rinne not only posted his eighth blanking of the season - a career high - but reached the 40-win plateau for the third time in the NHL career, something only six other goaltenders have ever done in the 100-year history of the League.
Rinne joins the legendary Martin Brodeur, Jacques Plante, Terry Sawchuk, Evgeni Nabokov and Braden Holtby, as well as fellow Finn Miikka Kiprusoff, who Rinne passed earlier this season to become the winningest Finnish netminder in NHL history.
Three wins away from tying his career high in victories for a single season, it's quite possible Rinne breaks that mark of 43, set during the 2011-12 campaign. It took Rinne 73 games to hit that total six years ago. This time around, he's got 40 wins in just 53 tries.
Rinne is the only starting netminder with more than 40 games played this season to have fewer than 10 regulation losses on his record (nine) and he paces his peers in virtually every major statistical category, including save percentage at .931. Rinne is also just one percentage point behind Marc-Andre Fleury (2.21) for the League lead in goals-against average, and Fleury has played in 13 fewer games than his counterpart.

Want to get a bit fancier? Rinne's quality start percentage, which basically tells whether or not a goaltender gives his team a chance to win in each of his starts, sits at .698, the best in the League. In addition, his goals saved above average (GSAA), which pits Rinne's save percentage and shots faced up against the League average, is at a ridiculous 30.01, with the closest challenger at 21.79. In layman's terms, just two more categories to give Rinne a decisive edge in the Vezina race.
The NHL's 31 general managers will ultimately decide the winner of the Vezina Trophy when they cast their votes at the conclusion of the regular season, and after being named a finalist on three other occasions in his career - including the other two previous seasons he's recorded 40 wins - this looks to be Rinne's year.
And while Rinne's
recent surprise visit
to a 95-year-old fan's birthday party, his work with Best Buddies and the 365 Pediatric Cancer Fund, or his general commitment to bettering the Nashville community likely won't factor into the final vote, why not mention a few more reasons to present a case for Rinne as the worthiest candidate for the Vezina.
At 35 years of age, it would've been easy to understand if Rinne's game were to slip as he adds another candle to the cake. Instead, the #Pekka4Vezina train keeps chugging along. And it's got enough fuel to last through June.