cross16
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Everything posted by cross16
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Concern is a strong word but would I say I have complete faith in them going forward? No. Something that I don't think is receving enough attention is how much the Flames have clamped down defensively recently. In the last 10 games the Flames are top 5 in basically all defensive catogires. Corsi Against, Fenwick against, Shots against, Chances against and high danger chances against at 5 on 5. The high danger chances is huge as well because if there has been an Achilles heel to this team defensively it's been that, so goes to show that they've really played a stingy brand of hockey recently. So while the goalie numbers are encouraging I think it's due more to the play in front of them, especially Smith. I still don't love the way Smith is playing but the team in front of him is making their job easier. So not concerned moving forward but i'm also not ready to say Smith is "back". I also think its pretty clear that Smith is their preferred playoff starter and if the playoffs were to start tomorrow he'd be the guy. My gut tells me you'll see Smith get more starts than Rittich unless he falters and they have go back to Rittich, but I think Smith is they guy they hope is ready to go for playoffs.
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Calgary Flames Drafting and Development: Your Analysis
cross16 replied to rickross's topic in Flames Talk
On goaltending, the forgotten one Mason McDonald is quietly having a good year in the ECHL. He's top 10 in both GAA and Save %. His number are better than what Jonathan Quick did in that league at the same age. Not suggesting that we should view him as the next Jonathan Quick, just thought it was interesting. -
Not to many goalies are stopping that Tkachuk goal IMO. It was a beautiful move to fake the shoulders and open up the five hole. Just Tip your hap. That was a high skill level play.
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No. but the difference is we are seeing the top of Mike Smith's game so far this year and the bottom of Rittich's and yet their stats are very similar. Also for me and the eye test I don't see improvement in Smith's game. I have more faith in one of the 2 "bouncing back". Never mind the fact that I think the stats argument between the two is a little misguided.
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Small arena update. Going behind closed doors and not sure yet if this "proposal" will be made public.
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That or maybe we don't think Smith is playing that great despite the wins? Because that is the camp i'm in. Yes I don't believe Smith is going to suddenly turn it around but I also happen to believe that despite a few wins he isn't playing that great so treating him like he's now their starter doesn't make sense to me either nor does it make sense to me to sit a player in Rittich who IMO has more upside than Smith.
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I hope Rittich goes against the Isles. Won't be thrilled if it's Smith. Edit: and i'm not happy...
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A good read on Bennett as well from George Johnson. Something he has only recently spoke about is his mom had a cancer diagnosis a few years ago that she has since recovered from. https://www.nhl.com/flames/news/my-game-is-growing/c-304931794. Kid has dealt with a ton in his young career already and powered through it. I still don't believe we've seen the best Sam Bennett and he is going to get better. Maybe not top line center anymore, but I still refuse to put a cap on his potential because it's still there.
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I thought Smith was very good against Florida, solid against the Pens but I did not like him at all yesterday. he kicked out many rebounds right into high scoring areas and while his movements were deliberate and confident in those other 2 games I thought he was back to the sporadic Smith yesterday. I did not like the Garland goal. I thought the Flames played their best defensive game in months yesterday and Smith was the benefactor. I actually don't dislike Smith at all and I think Plan A would be both he and Rittich find their games but I just don't have any faith it will happen for smith based on what i've seen this season. If you could get Howard for a cheap price (like mid round pick) i'm all for that.
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The biggest reason I would have gone back to Rittich is I think you need a guy going into the playoffs, you can't go in undecided. Going with the "hot hand" is not a recipe for going on a run. Not pounding the table upset upset but I think you need to pick one here and for me it's Rittich.
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I agree with the conclusion but quoting that stat is really misleading as it includes Rittich being pulled in SJ which I think most would agree was unfair. I agree with TD that I don't think it's accurate to say smith is the hot hand. He's won but I don't think he did it playing better than Rittich was playing.
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I think it should be Rittich. Smith needs more than 2 good games to flip the equation for me.
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Mike Smith will start tomorrow. I like this personally. Let Smith finish the road trip and try to build confidence while Rittich gets a home game to try and get back on track.
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I was thinking the same to be honest. I don't think Rittich has been as bad as the numbers suggest, but he also needs to be better.
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Dont clear the puck up the middle of the ice
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I don't think is reasonable to expect someone to assume another player is going to make a mistake and to make a decision to cover up for that "potential" mistake. Especially when you are consistently coached to do exactly what Brodie did there. Rittich broke a hockey 101 rule. It happens and you can't cover up every mistake.
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You can say this about all teams though. It's a long season, unrealistic to be 100% all the time.
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That's due in large part to much of the game cannot be explained because we lack the data and also there is a very large luck component to hockey that can never be managed or measured. Just depends on what narrative you want to spin and for all the flack the advanced stats community gets, I find the hockey purists are just as bad with their narratives too.
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This isn't my analogy but I've stolen it. A puck handling goalie is like a mobile QB in football. It looks cool, it gets attention and it has it's moments where it shines so people think it's a necessary skill or a boost to the team. But at the end of the season the QBs that win are the pure pocket passers. I think it especially true for Rittich as I think he is trying to be something he is not with the puck handling. It clearly does not come natural to him, so he should be coached to stay in his net.
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In short, the results show no real impact (positively or negatively) but the author also admits it's a really difficult study to draw conclusions from as it's hard to separate the action of puck handling and results (ie shots given up, hits taken etc etc).
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They are yes, the Calvary FC. They are going to play out of Spruce Meadows initially. Not sure if they are involved in the McMahon discussions at all. And just to clarify I absolutely understand why the focus is on the arena and I don't disagree with that. What I was saying trying to say was if we wanted to discuss priorities only using quality of facilities, then McMahon would be first. This is a long winded way for me to say that McMahon is in far worse shape then the Dome
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I was quite intrigued and would really like to know more. Here is a link in case anyone didn't see it https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/former-mayoral-candidate-developer-selling-new-mcmahon-centre-project. Seems very preliminary however Flames will always take priority and I get that and don't disagree. But if you want to talk about priority in terms of quality of facilities I think the Stamps and McMahon would be first in line. Far worse shape than the dome.
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Stamps are definitely not fine. Their attendance has been falling and I would argue it's actually in a pretty dire position. They don't even sell out playoff games anymore (and that's with basically giving tickets away) and there were games (mind you weather was a factor) where they was probably less than 10,000 fans in the stands. That's not all due to McMahon but I know many people where it is a huge factor (including me personally). Going to games there is just a really negative experience for the most part. I understand many don't care about the CFL and that's fair and understandable if you can't get behind it however.
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Not really. Only difference is instead of tying it into a West Village concept it's now an East Village/Rivers vision. Same message though. Caveat being we don't know how the talks have been progressing with the Flames and whether or not they are willing to put in more. This vision has been out there for a while, but are the Flames willing to negotiate and be fair this time is the big question.
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Great point. I bet it was a lot. Oilers and Flames were supposed to be rebuilding on a similar schedule and here you see the Flames having success and the Oilers stuck at the same level. I know if that was an owner that would eat at me, let alone the fact that it's your biggest rival too. Even if you were trying to rationalize that Chiarelli was doing an OK job, looking 3 hours down the road is all you need to do to really highlight just how poor a job he was actually doing. The Oilers should be better than the Flames right now, and really due to poor management (not just GM but higher) they are not. That has to be very frustrating.