Quote:
Originally Posted by stemit14
Smith is reminding me so much of hiller right now. His lateral movement has taken a nose dive. And he is being beat blocker side so much. I remember watching hiller with the flames and it was painful watching him trying to make a glove save by throwing his whole shoulder upward. It feels so much like the flames when they had hiller in net.
It’s really tough for the players cause I believe it makes it feel like he isn’t part of the winning on this team. The team wins in spite of him most nights rather than because of him. I know that none of the goals were particularly bad goals but he’s supposed be the number one goaltender... that means he supposed to stop the tough ones sometimes. Not just the easy ones. And he’s even making easy saves look harder than they should.
Right now. The players have to feel that they need to get two or three times as many legitimate scoring chances than the other team in order to win. Not because the other goalies have been that good... but because smith is letting in more goals relative to scoring chances than the opposing goalie almost every game.
It also doesn’t help that smith’s personality as a goalie is not one that goes over well with players. He gets mad and blames guys when they make mistakes that lead to goals. And he tries to do too much with puck handling and it’s more often leading to turnovers. Broadcasters like to say ”oh he’s just such a great competitor, that’s why he gets upset” but anyone who has played hockey for long periods of time knows what it’s like to play in front of this kind of goalie and how much players hate it. It makes the players frustrated with him. As a player... it’s never your place to give the goalie crap for screwing up... and the goalie should return that courtesy.
I was happy Treliving got the guys out of the room that were likely not fitting in with the team and not helping them become closer as a team (Brouwer, Hamilton). I felt smith was one of those guys and was hoping he would be replaced in the off-season. Still hopeful it can somehow happen. I honestly think the team plays better in front of Rittich. He’s apparently loved in the room and he’s a battler that plays the game like he’s so happy to be part of the team.
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Kind of interesting that Treliving would not have been aware of this “supposed” bad attitude after knowing him for so many years in Phoenix.
Sounds like a made up story to me.