Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Do you think the Flames need an upgrade in goal? I am not convinced. As I see it the goaltending issues are inter-related as follows:
1. Mike Smith played too much. Eddie Lack's terrible play in October coupled with Smith's brilliance created a situation in which the coaches ended up relying far too heavily on him early. However, by the same token and because of how weirdly balanced the early part of the schedule was, it was also difficult to sit Smith on the bench without also having him out-of-action for several days in a row.
2. Smith's injury: This was likely a product of the number of games he had already played in the first two-thirds, and this was also exacerbated by how Rittich responded with a heavier workload, along with the rest of the team behind him. A tonne of what happened with goaltending was psychological, and this leads to perhaps the most critical third point.
3. The home record: On the road, Smith, Rittich and the Flames were excellent. But for whatever reason when Smith played at the Saddledome he did not look great. I felt that about the whole roster, and it really seemed like several of the players were constantly playing inside their own heads.
I think all of these can potentially be resolved without much change to on-ice personnel. It probably has a lot to do with coaching (from my perspective not as much a "systems issue" as it is a "perparation-and-response issue"), but may also have to do with some of the on-ice dynamics between players.
|
Well building from the goalie out really includes the defense as I would define it. Goaltending was average this year. As to whether that was psychological, well I don’t know how to validate that.
My point is he wanted to win with a strong defense corps this year. Does he still believe in that approach?