Quote:
Originally Posted by burnitdown
I hear what you're saying but I'm curious at season's end, what type of split you'd like to see for the goalies? If you're wanting Smith to play 55-60 games, you have to play your back-up at least every 4th game (on average).
You say it's unrealistic to start your backup every 4th game in October...but isn't it more unrealistic to suddenly start playing your back-up more in the middle of a playoff race?
I mean, the difference between Smith starting tonight vs. Saturday isn't huge. I'm just worried that a Smith injury will derail our entire season and think we should try to mitigate that risk as much as possible. I personally would have started Smith in Game 3 to get Rittich in the mix early and often...but what do I know as Smith played lights out!
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I have been saying for more than a year now that Smith should be starting only 55–60 games, but by the same token the distribution is not going to be evenly staggered over the full season.
I think the place where the Flames will see more starts from Rittich is on the road in December, January, and February. There are nine road games in February, and two back-to-backs in each of December and January. The Flames play only five road games in November, no back-to-backs, and maybe only three of those games against bottom-end teams.