travel_dude
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Everything posted by travel_dude
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Considering that Rittich is 6-0-1 in his last 7 starts, we need Smith to steal a game now and then. The team plays better defensivel in front of him, yet he manages to give up weak goals. TBH, I do know what to say. If Smith can't get a win with limited starts, then we need one that can.
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Chia is just trying to keep his job. He has a lot riding on this season, whether Burke believes it or not. None of his most recent trades have worked out. Ebele traded to NYI for Strome traded for Spooner Spooner is getting scratched and little points COnditional 6th traded for Wideman Traded Wideman and a 3rd for Petrovic Traded Garrison and Caggiula for Manning Manning barely gets played over being a health scratch With all this, the Oilers blueline is a mess. The forward lines can;t score. Lucic is a cap dump to another team at best Rieder can;t score Puljujarvi provides little The rest are marginal players on any NHL team. There are teams that would trade a top 2 D-man to the Oilers, but the cost would be crazy. Nobody is going to provide a lifeline. The only assets they have is picks, Bouchard, maybe Yamamoto, and Jones/Bear. They could send Nuge, but that would dry them up even worse.
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I'll agree with it unless we lose. I get it. We need to manage Rittich's workload. Especially where he is getting run over a bit too much these days. What concerns me is that they haven;t gone to Smith sooner. Does that mean they don't have confidence or he hasn;t looked good in practice. I would like to see the team play their best defensive game ever in front of him. Give him a game to work with. If he can;t win with that, I don't know what to say.
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Varly is messed up right now. No idea if he's injured still or is having a Smith year. I would need to see him regain the net in COL before I even considered him next season. I don't think it's a good idea this year TDL. Rittich is a different player this year. They mismanaged his starts and then expected him to turn into a starter overnight. He was not put into the role until the season was slipping away. We went from a strong January to post-All Star break of losing 6 in a row. Yes in 4 of those we got a loser point. This season, he was treated more like a 1b than a backup. They ran with Smith for awhile, but used Rittich to balance the starts. I have confidence that he has adjusted to the role of a goto guy this season. His best starts were on the road, but he is managing to keep us in games at home now too. The biggest concern I have is the team plays less concerned about preventing high-danger shots in front of Rittich. At least it seems that way. They get pretty lax. It's almost like they expect him to make those saves. I think we need a backup in case Smith can't get back into form. Burn the extra roster spot. McBackup would be ideal because he can play cold. TBH, I think as long as they only give Smith single games he will be fine as a goalie. 3 in a row for Rittich, play Smith, then another 3 in a row for Rittich.
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It the cost increases by adding Smith, I would be a bit hesitant. Could we deal with having 3 goalies, all of them waiver eligible? At best, it gives you depth going into the playoffs. At worst, it's a cap nightmare for the rest of the season, not allowing much unless Stone is put on LTIR. As well, it leaves a former leader/goalie riding the popcorn circuit.
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I would take a flier on either goalie, but wouldn't want to give up that much for it. 3rd plus a pospect for either. McBackup is found money for them, so they don't have to recoup that much. Saying that, McBackup has real value to most teams needing a solid backup. Mrazek has intrigued me. I personally think he is less risky than a broken Smith. Broken as in he can't seem to find his game and age-wise seems unlikely to find it. Do you think they would take Smith as partial payment? Doesn't help them next season, but neither of those goalies do either. Gives them a vet to help finish off their season.
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Scoring is up for sure. Kinda goes with SA% dropping, right? Many theories about it. Great goalies having down years this year. New generation of goal scorers shooting lights out. Two sets of changes over the last two seasons; length of goalie pads and shape of chest protector. That may be part of Smith's problems, but he gets scored on with every kind of shot. Rittich has never seemed to be affected. And, yes, Rittich is our defacto starter, no matter what you want to say about Smith. Hegives you the chance to win. That is all you can expect. The backup has to give you at least average tending. If not, they why is he even playing. Some teams are picking up goalies like nothing. Philly has 2 today that aren;t even regulars. Elliott, Stilarz and Neuvirth out. Some are due back. None seem to be the solution.
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Sigalet supposedly told him to play deep in the net and let the play come to him. He felt Smith was too active outside the crease and couldn't recover in time. Awesome fix JS. He played the same against Pitts, and now BOS. Deep. What I don't get is that he can't even cover the lower part of the net now. 2 goals against DET, where he covered less than a 3rd of it, down in the butterfly. 10 hole showing up against BOS. High blocker side now exposed. Used to be high glove.
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Cali swing. "Easy" game against the Kings who are never a pushover. They don;t score a lot but also don;t give up a tone. B2B against the Ducks. Good luck scoring on Gibson. Next game against the Sharks.
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Don;t know the validity of this but.... Calgary Trade Central @cgytradecentral FollowFollow @cgytradecentral More Mike Smith gets the start tonight. #Flames Please ignore my earlier post. Rittich must not be 100%.
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I think you have to be very careful with both Rittich and Smith. If Rittich is 100% and it wasn;t anything more than soreness and precautionary, then you have to think Rittich. I'm saying that because I'm not sure about Smith's health. Skate to the back of the leg last night, combined with whatever he was dealing with before, assuming it was an injury and not mental. Last night was not an easy game for him. Lots of work and awkward saves required. Decision has to be a guy they feel is 100% and able to play 2 in a row, if his name is Smith. I'm guess that they started Smith in game 1 to give extra time for Rittich. That makes sense if they just gave him a day off. If he's got any kind of real injury, then it would have made sense to start Gillies in Game 1.
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Consider his age and the fact that if injured we have nobody else until Rittich is back. Needs to be treated with kid gloves, no matter how he looked last night. He has an injury history. Don;t take the chance.
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His lateral movement wasn;t good on two I watched. Playing back in his net helps with the majority of the shots he faces, but staying deep means he gets beat in the crease or high shots from the side (Crosby goals). We'll see if Smith gets a second start on a B2B, whether they trust Gillies or Rittich is available.
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Rittich is a big game goalie. Probably the better choice behind a tired team on a B2B. Whatever Smith does in game 1, Rittich will try to outdo in game 2. The score of the SJS game was not a good measure of the goalie(s). Bad defensive play by Hammer/Hanifin on 2 goals, forwards lost ther man wide open. A miscue by Mony on a goal that just kind of bounced off the boards. A terminal velocity blash by Burns. And a goal Rittich may have wanted back (Jumbo goal). Tighten up the screws a bit. Give Smith some help.
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New Oilers. Petrovic -1 Manning -1 Hitch 6L in a row.
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If you had no clue about hockey or the players, you might think they were designed to improve the team. Have little depth on the blueline, yet Sekera and Klefbom will return end of January. Trade for 3 D-men. All seem to be reclamation projects. Yeah, what could go wrong with that? Spooner downgrade. Even the paid hacks are startng to wonder what's going on. Actually ask tough questions. You would think they would tie his hands behind him back rather than letting him use the phone. Manning is the most curious trade. Lack of scoring depth and trade away one guy that actually "had" the ability to score. This isn't even a tank move, as it gets them little usable assets.
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Oh oh, the dreaded double post. Oh oh, the dreaded double post.
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FYI, Rittich to start against San Jose.
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I don't even know if BP has a plan or is just reacting to what he sees. With tonight Rittich will have played 2 in a row. He should start against SJS.
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I don't disagree, but out of the coming games, what are the easy games: vs VAN vs SJS @DET (B2B1) @BOS (B2B2) @PHI @CHI vs COL Every one of those teams can be tough to handle and shut down. If you want to get Smith going, the road may be the best place to start. DET might be the first game I would start him for that reason. PHI will be a bad nightmare for him and CHI is startng to play better.
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Yes, his last two starts were awesme.
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I think we all had some questions when he was left in CGY for pre-season. Maybe that helped him more than anything to start. For the most part, it seems like BP has been trying to get Smith pumped up by going to him when we think otherwise. STL was a great example. Hard to watch a 2nd game against them with Smith in nets; 5 GA in first fame and 3 in 2nd game. His first start after the "injury". I don;t know the best way of getting Smith back to starter quality, if there's even a chance. He's not inspiring confidence right now, while Rittich is. Maybe there are a few games where you don;t have to worry about the other team and can limit shots. What are those? We've been bleeding too many high danger chances and the goalie needs to make those stops. Rittich does and Smith doesn;t. That's the fax jack. Blame the D or the cheating forwards, but we can;t always help out the stryggling goalie. I get the sense that BT is looking at Smith with the same eyes that saw Elliott fall from grace. If he doesn;t turn his game around STAT, BT will be looking for a backup. We've come so far from last year to have another season dictated by poor finishing goaltending. Gillies isn;t the answer if Smith falters. Rittich can make a believer out of the most fickle fans, but he needs help.
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Check. Rittich has started 18. Give hime 30 more. 14 for a backup. That's all well and good. Except, that assumes we have a reliable goalie to play the other remaining 14. Maybe Smith is that guy, but they need to play him that way, much like they have the last little bit.
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He's making a case for keeping him over Valimaki. His game is better defined at the pro level right now. Not sure that he'll be a top pairing guy on this team, but he's playing smarter in limited minutes. Smarter than Brodie (safer plays), more offensively aware, makes less glaring mistakes he can;t recover from. Ras is so good with his stick that he doesn;t get exposed for slower skating. If he could get in better shooting positions, he would create many more chances. Get him on on the PP with someone like Neal or Janko to tip pucks and he would be gold. Hanifin is still a work in progress. I like his game overall. He fits with Hammer. He's a bit light on the puck at times, so he gives it away too often. Defensievly, he's better than Dougie. Smarter and takes less peanlties. Gio is still a beast. Get a little worried about his pinching at times, especially on the PP. Overall, he's having a Norris season. Part of that is thanks to Brodie. Gio makes Brodie better, but it's also true in reverse. Brodie is improving his defensive game, way better than last season. Smart use of his stick. Positioning over physical play, which is a stong point of his game. Get's burnt puckwatching some times, but it's mostly trying to play bouncing pucks with his stick and not trapping it. Overall, 6 solid everyday defensemen. A 7th recoving. A depth guy there just in case.
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Wills is about the most annoying guy I have ever heard. I don't care what he thinks. Maybe I just don't like him, but I rarely agree with what he says.
