Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee
Mathgod I respect you as a poster but on this one I just think you're being a bit harsh. I was at the game last night and the body language was pretty telling, and I was watching pretty intently. Here's a ridiculous over-the-top play by play but it may help describe where I'm going with this:
As soon as the puck went in, you could tell Elliott seemed confused as to how it even happened. He kinda looked around and down at his pad. His pad was on the ice flat but just somehow it squeaked through. Obviously unacceptable, but Elliott already knew that. He immediately stood up and just stood in his net. Johnson was flagged and hopped on the ice to begin stretching and warming up quickly, by the bench. Elliott would have seen him right then and known he was being pulled, but he continued to stand in his net for another 20 seconds or so, head down. Then he starts to make his way to the bench very slowly, and immediately exiting the ice just walks down the corridor to the dressing room. The crowd starts cheering very loudly about the goalie change (ouch...). My seats are directly across, so we can see down the hall a little. He stood by himself in the hallway, looked very, very upset... staring at the wall, turning around almost kinda squirming a bit. Head thrown back. Next, he returns to the bench, doesn't talk to anyone, doesn't remove his helmet for the entire period, and is still as a statue. Good lord even at that point I was like somebody go give that man a hug and prevent a suicide here.
I came home and hopped on here of course. I see some comments which are crazy aggressive in the GT (jesus, let's hope he doesn't read that) and then similar comments about him in the PGT (same as above). People are saying F him, screw this guy, hope his career his over... basically acting as if he is the worst person possible on earth for making this one mistake. Was it a crazy huge mistake? Absolutely! Does it mean he should be done with Calgary? Probably, maybe, I dunno but the whole approach and everything that happened just seemed way too excessive for my liking. Some of these things don't need to be said. Then the media today. Holy hell, Francis writes an article saying there's NO WAY he will ever return to the team. Media guys saying his career is over. The entire city buzzing over how ####ty you are...
Like holy #### people. Take it easy. The guy made a huge mistake and it's going to cost him his career or at least multiple millions in contract this summer. But he didn't have sex with your wife and then shoot your dog and take a #### on your front porch. This isn't the devil reincarnate. He is after all still a human being, and I think that's where the defense of him is coming from. So you don't think he has a hard life? I agree, does that mean he deserves this much criticism levied against him for a couple bad games / bad playoffs when he played pretty fricken good in the middle of the season and the Flames offense mustered 2 goals on 5 v 5 all series?
Gaudreau played like garbage did you want him shot, drawn and quartered at town center too?
It's all just a bit much. It's a sport, it's a game. He made a mistake. Let's pump the brakes a bit here.
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I can see where you're coming from and I respect your opinion. Some fans are going overboard with their venom, I'd agree there. However, I would hope that you at least consider the following:
- People directing harsh criticism toward Elliott are doing so because they are hurting; they just saw the team they love get swept in the first round of the playoffs. They also see how things could have been very very different if Elliott makes a few key saves at key times that he didn't make. It's a disappointing situation and people are - understandably - very frustrated.
- This is professional sports. As a professional athlete who makes millions of dollars per year, you know what you're signing up for. This is especially true for starting goaltenders - no one on the team is under more scrutiny than you are; that's the nature of the position. When things go wrong, you're going the be the first one to take a firestorm of criticism, especially if you give up bad goals. It may be unfair, but unfortunately that's the nature of the beast. Having thick skin and short memory is part of the job description.
- It's not like Elliott is a victim of a situation that he didn't create. He created the situation with is poor play.
- There has been plenty of criticism directed toward Johnny too, so it's not like he has got off this scot-free.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy
Both Johnson and Elliott had up and down seasons.
Their highs were extremely high, and their lows were extremely low. Ultimately their combined play resulted in the Flames making the playoffs, which is probably why BT probably went and got two guys who played a combined 86 games the year before, because he knew neither one was likely able to shoulder a full starters work load.
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You can bet that Elliott's performance in last year's playoffs played a big part in BT's decision to bring him here. He was brought here to be the clear cut #1 guy, and it was evidenced by the fact that GG stuck with him for many games early in the season despite his struggles, and it took quite some time to make the switch to Johnson.