travel_dude
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Everything posted by travel_dude
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If you really believe that Rittich has to have a good playoff to stick around..... Stopgap measures do not work. Hiller. Elliott. Smith has not proven to be the better goalie all year, and we really just saw a resurgence of his play when he got the net for a bunch of games against lesser teams. In fact, we would be outside looking in if not for Rittich. We beat most of the West as a result of him. Has Smith helped us get there? For sure. His numbers overall (SA%, 5v5 SA%, GAA) are not that great. We can probably win with him, but he's bigger risk to falter than Rittich. IMHO. I get where you are coming from. And if Smith is the starter until we lose out or win the cup, so be it. That's either his parting glory or swan song to retirement.
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I got no issue whatso-f'n-ever is re-signing him. The trade itself was a 4th in 202 that becomes a 3rd if he plays in 50% of the playoff games and we reach the WCF.
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Page 444 of the goalie thread, and we are still looking for the next starter for next year. If Rittich is to be that guy next year, why are we talking about Smith? Just saying. Put your season on the line with a guy that is probably done this summer or the guy you scouted and built to where he is today. The guy guaranteed to be here next season.
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Many possibilities: STL-DAL STL-NAS STL-WPG Which would you prefer STL to destroy?
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Not bad for a guy that never really stood out in LA. As in, never made Doubty type errors. Never scored goals like Burns. Never got beat like a Russell. Not flashy, but the kind you want to have on your roster, even if he's not an everyday guy. Why pay $3.5m for STone when you have this guy?
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Calgary Flames Drafting and Development: Your Analysis
travel_dude replied to rickross's topic in Flames Talk
Trade for a 1st (if you can) or trade him to Minny for Zucker. We have D pretty much locked for the next few years. Gio, Ras, Hanifin, Hammer, Valimaki, Kylington, and Fanta. Trade for things we need. -
Calgary Flames Drafting and Development: Your Analysis
travel_dude replied to rickross's topic in Flames Talk
Yeah there's a lot of AHL guys that probably won;t get qualified (RFA's with arb). Lazar, Foo, Rychel, Lomberg. Healey and Valiev. Maybe Foo and Rychel? Lomberg won't but they will sign him. Have to keep the buyout window possible if they don;t do it right away. Stone will get traded for peanuts or just bought out. His salary is a hard thing to trade, and retained salary > the buyout retention would bad. -
If Fanta plays, it will be with Ras. If Valimaki plays, then the options are Vali-Ras or Vali-Brodie.
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I must have missed those great games that Smith played against COL. Not this year. 5 goals against in his only start. Not last year. Did play against them. I'm not saying it should be either goalie, just that your stats don;t back up anything.
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Well, it's hard to say what they look like now because they haven't played together in months. Stragely enough, Brodie has more points recently playing on the 3rd pairing. So, ask yourself - Valimaki-Brodie and Gio-Ras. Is that better than Brodano and ValiRas? I don;t think the coach has any issues with using Valimaki. He said he knows what he is. It's more of a question of balance.
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Depends. Who is the 1RD? Brodie or Ras? If they go with Ras on 1RD, then Vali-Brodie makes sense. It's not about Vali not being good even after being in the AHL, it's about having two rookies paired in the playoffs. I would like to see one game at least before I would go wiht the two rookies. Haven;t seen it in months. Last night seemed to line up the depth as follows: Valimaki Fantenberg Kylington Stone/Prout What say you?
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Hanifin has zero playoff experience. He's my biggest worry about taking chances that are not there. Gio, while he only has 4 playoff games, knows the risks. Brodie is a little laid back, but should be dialed up. Ras, I have no worries. Fanta has more experience as a shut down guy. Hammer is fine. I would actually prefer Hanifin take the puck deep and have a forward cover his spot. Or have Hammer hold the line and Hanifin back off.
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The guys most likely to turn it over at the blue line: Gio - a few situations come to mind; hits the defender in the shins or breaks stick or has zero time to make the play, can recover but takes penalties Brodie - tends to get picked off or gets turned the wrong way, has the speed to recover unless he's skating like he's stuck in mud (witness last game) Hanifin - poor hand-eye coordination at times on the boards, has the spped but doesn;t play the shooter that well. The guys most likely to keep it in: Ras - I've seen him miss one the entire time I have been watching him. Hamonic - takes the body over a high risk move. Fanta - not enough data. Haven;t seen him get burned, though I could have missed it. Unfortunately, these guys will be studied, looking for weakness or tendencies. Easy solution. Back off if you have a nothing play.
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Well said. Our biggest concern early was Smith playing 60 games going into playoffs and getting hurt. Now it's which goalie is going to be the best for the SC Playoffs. WEST Vegas has to pin their hopes on MAF being healthy. SJS has to hope Jones has a good day or they have to resort to Arendelle. WPG is......don't even know anymore. Is Helly playing bad or just the team in front. STL is hoping that Allen/Bing can be as good as they have played recently. Crap before Bing showed up. COL hopes fo the recent version of Gru. NAS has a great tandem that has not been great. DAL hopes to be able to gring out 2-1 wins. Good luck. EAST No clue. Starters like Rask not playing as well as Halak. Who do they get to start or do they split? Bob and Holtby have looked human. Vasilevskiy has been really good. Lehner/Greiss have been really good. TO is looking tired and vulnerable. CAR has Mrazek and McBackup. Not sure about Murray. Every game I have seen recently has been him losing.
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Last night a lot of Smith's plays ended up creating havoc, not in a good way. Close to the same number that worked. Teams will expose that if it stays the exact same. My preference for the starter is athletic and focused. Strong glove side. Plays the puck but does not wander. Short passes to the D.
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I don't think the game against the Sharks answered any questions. Sharks were unlucky to score. PP's were useless. 9 shots through 2 periods. 3 GA on 15 shots. What have we learned? I think we can win a series with either guy, but at this point, I have no idea who would be the better starter in Game 1. Rittich is the better road goalie, but would you split the assignments that way?
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If we left decisions up to Wills, we would have seen Smith every game this season. Consider this. Rittich is 26-8-5. 13-2-4 at home. 13-6-1 on the road. Smith is 22-15-2 13-7-1 at home. 9-8-1 on the road. Make that 10-8-1.
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Yeah, I missed that earlier. Stone will never get a game in at this rate. Players with more recent experience than Stone: Kylington, Fantenberg, Prout, Valimaki.... He's not taking Ras's place unless it's game 82.
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I can live with the player versus player comps. Wins. SA%, GAA, trending, tendencies, etc. I get annoyed with the pundits that spout how much better the team plays in front of Smith. How his handling the puck saves wear and tear on the D. How his playing every puck that comes near him disrupts the other team. Lets be real here. Smith is 3-4 in his last 7. One game against a playoff team, and that was a loss. Rittich is 4-3. Five games against playoff teams, all three losses to playoff teams. Is that really impressive? Seems to me they might be giving Rittich a break before the final few games and get him ready to start the playoffs. Playoffs start April 11th so I would suspect that whoever starts game #81 is likely the starter.
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The original trade was one thing. Strome for Eberle. Ya move on and accept a 35 point player for the pluses they bring. Yet, they decided to trade when his value was low for Spooner, whose value was less. Desperate trade for no good reason. Stromes are overrated, but he was okay on the PK and could still chip in goals. The trade that blew me away was Cagiula for Manning. No sense at all. The Oilers have two players signed that caused bodily harm to current Oilers; Kassian and Manning. Not sure how Gagner can play woth that douche. Guess he had little choice, being not good enough to crack the Nucks lineup.
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Yeah, I'm not freakin out or anything, just asking the tough questions. Smith has scratched his way back to 900. Good to have that luzury of two goalies to choose from. I just caution that a lot of it has been against lesser teams. I'm pumped for the playoffs. May actually see one live. On the road, Rittich has won so many. At home, he has better numbers but more losses, which just started recently. He's be my choice to take us past round one and two. That's just me.
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Holtby struggled down the stretch and they gave the other guy the nod. Almost backfired. Just saying. In our case, both look like they can win their games. Maybe that's because of who they face. They haven't named the starter for the SJS game yet, because it might not matter if the Sharks lose tonight. I just want to see them pick the best guy (Rittich lol) and get him tuned up for the playoffs. Hard to draw any conclusions from last night's game. Smith made one really good stop, that was maybe a grade B+ chance. The rest of the game was minimal. His puck handling led to the goal. Other times he played it, it resulted in turnovers. Not a great example of his abilities, and the playoffs will exploit those.
