I like seeing Riddich in net tonight for the same reasons as posted.
Not sure if this was posted here, but I also really liked the take on Mike Smith from u/jessemadnote on Reddit. I'm excited to see Riddich light it up and become a true 1b, but this post is a solid take on Mike Smith and an interesting discussion point.
Quote:
u/jessemadnote
I’ve heard a couple people bemoaning the Mike Smith performances of late and I’d like to touch on why they are not as bad as they seem, and why our team’s defensive execution is much worse than it appears. People have stated that maybe Rittich deserves a chance to carry the mail for a bit after his otherworldly performance in New York and I agree, he at least deserves another shot in the next 2-3 games, but his performance has nothing to do with Smith. We can’t say one goalie is poor because another goalie is performing amazingly. I’m here to argue that outside of the first two games of the season, Mike Smith has not been poor.
(All stats are 5v5 and have been taken from natural stat trick.)
Mike Smith has allowed 13 goals, but 11 of those have been high danger goals. That means that Mike Smith has allowed 2 goals that weren't high danger chances in 6 games. Despite facing the 12th most shots so far with 129, Mike Smith has faced the 3rd most high danger shots against in the league with 51. That means 40% of the shots Mike Smith has faced have been high danger variety. Compare that to Henrik Lundqvist who has dealt with 25% high danger shots you start to see why his save percentage is in the ####ter.
Mike smith has also had the most rush attempt against and the third lowest average goal distance, this all comes from the fact that despite the Flames not being terrible with shots against they absolutely bleed scoring chances. As a former goalie I know if you face 8 shots in a period and 3 of them are grade A chances it’s a recipe for disaster.
All this made me curious about the implication that Peters system is the issue so I went and dug in to the stats. During Peter’s tenure, Carolina faced 6813 shots at 5v5, 1820 of those were the high danger variety. That means 27% of the shots against were high danger which is much more manageable than 40%. I believe the reason for this poor defensive play is the team adjusting to a new system and 3 new defenseman (all under 22 btw) in the lineup. Some may point to TJ Brodie but he’s actually leading the team with Gio in Scoring Chances Against per 60. Not to say he’s playing well, but overall he’s not bleeding chances like Hanifin and Andersson.
So overall, I’m here with a hot take, Mike Smith is not ####. Yes he got lit up for 5 goals in two periods in St Louis, but the game before he had a 43 save shutout against the league's number 1 team. He's been stable. Us ####ting on him for being stable but not a saviour is not healthy as a fan base. We are at a point where 4 goalies sit above the NHL all time save percentage record and amazing starters like Holtby, Bobrovsky, and Quick are below .880. As time passes the goalies on heaters will cool down and the ones adjusting to the new season will stabilize. Mike Smith will stabilize, our defence will stabilize and hopefully Rittich can keep up the Salt Bae domination.
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