[savardandjokinen]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Yeah, the way that Eddie Lack faltered in Calgary played a huge part in how Smith was handled last season. Smith started the first three games in six days, and posted two wins, a shutout, and a 0.949 SP. He had just led the Flames to their first win at the Honda Center in Anaheim since 2006. There was little surprise to see him start Game #4 in LA two days later, and he was once again great.

Eddie Lack played in his first game in the next home game, Game #5 against Ottawa, which was a Friday night game, and the first game of the Flames first back-to-back. Smith started the game, but allowed 5 goals on 22 shots. Eddie Lack came in relief and allowed one more goal on six shots. I think there was probably a plan to have Lack play the Saturday night in Vancouver, but his performance in the third period of the Friday-night game probably gave the coaching staff some pause, and they started Smith, who won and posted a 0.931 SP. After that, Lack waited another two weeks to start again against St. Louis on the road. He lost the game, allowing four goals and posted a 0.857 SP. He received one more start in 2017 on 15 Nov in Detroit—a debacle of a game that saw him allow four first-period goals on 11 shots. In the meantime, Smith had started 16 games, posted a 9-6 record and a 0.921 SP.

The combination of Smith's strong early play and Lack's terrible performance really forced the Flames's coaches hand, and convinced them to start Smith in every game in the first six weeks. Did Rittich was recalled shortly thereafter and won his first game in Colorado on 25 Nov. By that time the coaches had basically set their schedule in which Mike Sith would play every game except for back-to-backs. It was a bad call, but also one that was made in the view of how undependable Eddie Lack had been.

Bill Peters has shown a propensity for balancing the workloads of his goalies more evenly. In his four years in Carolina his starter only once played in 60 games. I trust that so long as Rittich—or perhaps Gillies—plays solid, then they will get a few more starts in the first two months of the season.

While Peters might do that again, I think Carolina typically had borderline starting goalies (Ward, Darling, Lack, Khudobin). Here, the starter is clear, so I think Smith, if healthy, likely plays 60+ games