Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
As sloppy as the Flames were defensively last night as were the Canucks. Markstrom made saves on several Flames breakaways and that move along the ice by Virtanen was something a lot of goaltenders easily turn aside. On the first goal yes it was a great shot but Smith is too deep as that's his style but at 36 he's probably not as quick and reactive as he used to be which is the crux of the issue here at the age of 36. At 36 years old and it's a stretch to think he's going to be better than last year. It's not his fault he's getting long on the tooth and age is not something he can overcome. It's a big problem for this team. Making the routine saves isn't good enough. Goaltenders need to be stealing goals away from other teams and that just hasn't happened enough for this team with these goaltenders.
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The Canucks had three blue chip chances in all alone in the first and he stopped them all.
Early in the second he stopped another three that could have ended the game.
I see terrible defensive work and a goalie left abandoned.
I didn't like the Virtanen goal (as I said in the game story) but I also find it hard to blame a goalie on a breakaway.
Seems like he's a whipping boy. That game wasn't his fault at all.
Markstrom didn't have the degree of difficulty as Smith either because the Flames were on the perimeter or if they got in close they flubbed it (Dube breakaway, Backlund off his stick when he was in alone). Markstrom had a lot of pucks hit him that he never saw and many a rebound that he couldn't find.