Bad game by Smitty...although at times it didn't look like he was getting a lot of solid help either - certainly not in the 3rd. It's like the Flames got up a bit and then. Stopped. For. A. While. And. Watched. Guys. Blow. By. Them.
I thought in the first two periods, that it was one of the best games by Brouwer in a while, and the 4th line was pretty effective. Scoring was dispersed. Not bad. Smith had made some fantastic saves.
Then came a bad goal real early in the 3rd - and no recovery timeout. THAT I place solely on GG. Some will argue that timeouts don't make any difference, the guys are pros blah blah blah. But a discouraging moment is still a discouraging moment - and a quick breather to regroup is better than hoping that you'll save your timeout to challenge a potential bad goal.
Energy behind the bench does seem to translate to energy on the ice - I think there's plenty of animated coaches to look at that have highly-functioning teams. (Maybe there are some that are quiet and thoughtful all the way through a game and also have huge success? Can't think of any offhand though. Even Tippett would get pissed now and then.)
Hrudey mentioned that even Smith was looking at the bench to get the hook and it didn't happen. That should have been a clue to clueless behind the bench.
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