travel_dude

With Smith's age factored in, there is some truth that he's reached the point of no return. Only the select few ever stay at a high level at that age. Some goal scored seem to be a lack of confidence, while others seem to be slow reaction time. Perhaps both can be attributed to confidence. Don't know. The team hasn't given up on him yet, but they need to be very careful in how they dole out the starts and how they manage the next few weeks. Rittich has the net now, and should be given enough rope to prove he isn;t a flash in the pan. I admit I was skeptical he could recover from how he played the end of last season, but the guy is so even-keeled that he used it as a learning experience. He's playing at a level right now that you expect from your starter. Play him like that for the next few weeks. Smith needs to do something different. Throw out the red pads and buy another set. Burn the old ones outside the Saddledome. Come to the rink as the backup and show that you are ready to win a game when you get a chance. It may not be until they play Vegas or Arizona on the road.

Maybe reality lies somewhere between your view and The_People1's view of Bennett.

The issue I have with the trade is only that Bennett would become a first line LW with McDavid. He would put up a ton on points and add an edge that McDavid doen;t have. I might consider Janko for Pooly. At least they would get a player that wouldn;t kill us to lose. Then again, I like Janko too, just isn;t in the right spot here right now. Would need to work out a 3-way deal so we wouldn;t have to play Bennett so often.

Spooner has been pretty unlucky since he went to NY. 36 games in total for the last two years. LHS for a RHS swap. Will probably work out better though he is snakebit this season so far.

Parsons has an injury and hasn't played in some time. Only has 3 ghames all season. He didn't look good in his starts, but then again nobody has.

I get that Friedman say he thinks CGY on not on his list of teams to trade with, but that's just an opinion. There's no basis for it.

I guess what I was alluding to is basically a two goalie system, with Smith out of the picture until he's able to battle his way back in. I don't think that very realistic, but I don't know another way.

Mrazek may be a roll-the-dice option to consider. Surely he wouldn't cost much. Three headed monster is only that way if you have three playing regularly or need to get one guy in. Bring in a third goalie and relegate Smith to eating popcorn. Let him work his way back into the picture. Right now, you can't even tell if he is able to battle back. Give Rittich the majority of starts right now. If Smith is coming back in, then you get the feeling it's a scheduled loss. That's what it feels like. It's why I am suggesting the 3-headed monster. Not great, but we can't keep losing. No idea if Smith has lost it or will ever get back to last year early season MVP status.

He's still fighting it. Twice he tried to carry the puck in all the way to the net. Once he was tripped/fell; managed to get a pass to Backlund for the whiff. The other one he tried to go through two players and lost it/fell. I like his game, just don;t know what he need to do differently to score. He's deflecting pucks away from the net or getting hit with the puck heading for the net. He's finding the most traffic possible to try and get a shot away. He need to see a Witch Doctor to remove the curse. Maybe playing against McDavid will help. He used to shut that kid down.

Is JS saying it's Smith or a JS look-alike hand puppet saving Smith gets the start. Too much respect, perhaps. I liked Hartley's "Wheel of Goalie" to decide.

There is zero news on him. Nothing other than he said he might retire when he went unsigned to start the season. How about the Glass "kid". He sign in Europe? Seriously, I don;t think it's that drastic. Smith will probably rebound at some point, but I don;t think it's any time soon. It's not the same issue as Price. Price is elite and playing like crap this year. Smith is not elite and playing like crap. The funny thing is when we had Gillies last year, he would let the first one or two in and be a brick wall after that. We were just too frail to ever come back. This year, Smith is doing the exact same thing, yet he is mostly not a brick wall after that. Tonight, it should have been a brick wall after he let in the easy goal. Against ANA, it should have been a brick wall. He has to start from scratch right now, not try to win the game on one save. Gain confidence by showing up at practice knowing you are not starting. Battle back to retake the net.

Darling looked like crap and Lack was crap. From what it sounds, Sigalet is making the recommendations not BP. There was one game where it sounded like Smith was getting the next start and they gave it to Rittich. I think that was the coach, not JS.

Considering that LA is in a pickle with Quick and JJ both out with torn knee meniscus, the likelyhood of finding a replacement for Smith is close to zero. Also Tampa lost their starter. We could trade him to LA for something. But we still need to get a goalie. Maybe Mrazek or Darling or Jarry. Or just sign a stone cold Mason. Speaking of Stone cold, we could trade Stone for a goalie.

I was thinking it was a golden opportunity to start Rittich against MTL. The game got away from the team in MTL, Rittich still managed to keep it close enough to come back. 40 saves. EDM would have been the logical choice for Smith, as his last two against them were dominant, even after he came back from injury. Now we started Smith and he comes up on the wrong side of stoppable shots. First was bad. 3rd was worse. We can;t go back to Smith on Saturday. There is no pint or logic. Get Smith going? That was San Jose game, which only showed that he still leaks goals. Now that we see Smith isn;t going. 3 loses in 3 starts. Let's drop the term "starter" and just give the starts to the goalie that gives you the best chance to win. Or, the one the Head Coach feels is the right choice based on HIS review of game tapes, not Sigalet's opinion.

To be fair, the entire team is lost if they aren;t on the scoresheet. If McDavid doesn;t get a point, they lose.

I don;t think it's a trade he was talking about. I sounded like usage, whether it being on a line with Brouwer or other spare parts.

I believe it was Lebrun. He doesn;t make stuff up, but it sounds like a combo of two different stories. One being a possibly leaked report from an agent, the other being the party line that BT has been saying (and Burke touched on it).

We always have the Positivity thread to help us look at the good things. Not much traction lately, but then again the Burn it Down thread is also down to a dull roar. We all haves our pet peeves. Mine is riding a not-hot goalie over a hot one. The evidence is out there. Play to win while you have all your tools available.

True, but you can't just go down the path of "Smith is our starter". If it makes sense to start Rittich more, you do that. If Smith is still having a "awe, crap" goal every game, you have to understand the impact it makes on the team, not just appease Smith.

Saw this:

I support your recommendations. So far, Rittich is playing as good or better than his start last year. On the flip side, Smith is playing as bad as he was in January/March/April. Getting Smith going is necessary for the remains of the season. Winning until that happens is just as important. I am up and down about the starter versus MTL and EDM. Smith had two wins against EDM last year and 2 horrific losses. Rittich was his usual 3 GA, but lost in the shootout. Against MTL this year, Rittich was good in a game where the team was horrible. 40 shots against.

If I understand the metrics at all, high danger is within a certain area of the ice (slot, bottom of circle, side of net, etc), while low danger would be top of circle out. They all results in a save or goal, so it doesn't result in a post or missed shot or block.

I would suggest that these stats are not subjective. Not as bad as shot counts or hits. I don't believe don't however analyse the quality of the shots. For instance, a rocket or knuckle ball fired from a low danger spot or alternatively a weak shot from a high-danger spot. But, it's an evolving field. Post game evidence that may or may not support what the eye sees. The issue I have with sportscasters and ex-players is that they have their own biases. They round up evidence to support their opinions or just blatantly love or hate certain teams. Even blogs on FN or in the Sun/Herald are written with bias. I removed any interpretation of the stats from the post, as each person needs to draw their own conclusions.

Some interesting number provided from an article about saves at even, PP and PK by each goalie. Posted with only the information provided in the writeup. I didn't include the graph, which is confusing at best: Penalty kill The Flames’ penalty kill has given up 14 powerplay goals, shown in blue. Playing time between the goalies is not equal, so one way to compare their play would be to look at rates, specifically their saves per 60 minutes. When on the penalty kill, Smith makes 37.4 saves/60, which gives him a SV% of .800, whereas Rittich makes 42.1, resulting in a SV% of .833. Nine goals against the penalty kill were high danger. While both Smith and Rittich have given up a couple of low- and medium-danger goals while on the penalty kill, Rittich has been much better at limiting high-danger goals. Smith’s HDSV% on the penalty kill is .588, compared to Rittich’s .800, which coincidentally is Smith’s overall penalty kill SV%. Even strength At even strength, the Flames have been scored on 36 times, shown in purple. Similarly looking at rates, Smith sits at 25.9 saves/60; Rittich at 28.4 saves/60. Rittich’s even strength SV% of .951 is among the best in the league. Smith, on the other hand, has an even strength SV% of .893, which ranks him among the worst in the league. The stat to look at here is again high-danger goals against. Smith has struggled making high-danger saves. His HDSV% is a paltry .814, compared to Rittich’s .926. For what it’s worth, Rittich’s HDSV% at even strength is second best in the league, behind Pekka Rinne (among goalies with more than 300 minutes played). Powerplay The Flames have had their woes on the powerplay, but they’ve also given up two shorthanded goals against, shown in red. Both of these goals were scored on Smith, and both of these goals were not high danger. Giving up a shorthanded goal definitely hurts, but having them scored on low-percentage shots hurts a bit more. While it can and will happen to any goaltender on any given night, letting in shorthanded goals on mediocre shots when the powerplay itself has struggled to score is not a good combination.