Quote:
Originally Posted by Red
But if not for Smith this team is barely .500.
And I Look at indicators that have been used for decades. Fancy stats are for nerds  |
I'm not a huge fancy stats guy but have started to pay more attention to them. I do think that some of the historical stats like plus/minus are a total waste of time though.
Smith is a factor to be sure, but he is 12th in GAA (2.61) and 11th in SVP (0.922)
I think he is providing the Flames with good goaltending but we are so accustomed to a tire fire back there that the perception is that it has been out of this world.
I'm not discounting his role in the strong start, but particularly in this latest string of strong play and wins, he hasn't had to steal many. He's giving the team the type of goaltending they should expect from a #1, but haven't had for a few years.
So when we say if they didn't have Smith they would be less than .500 does that assume they would have an inadequate goalie in his place? What if they had a guy like Ben Bishop or Marc Andre Fleury (injured I know)?
Where would any good team be with cruddy tending? It is hard to find examples of teams with good records that aren't getting good to great netminding.