Quote:
Originally Posted by Split98
We finally have a coach that's winning games again! There's no question that if he's not outright changing the game's narrative himself, he's frequently opening opportunities for someone to do it on the ice.
The only real knock so far is how he's handling the goalies. Everything else (PP and defence) I can chalk up to 'wait until game 20', and I hesitated to bring this in here. This isn't a comment on whether or not Smith is bad, and how bad he is... but rather, what is holding him back from starting Rittich against Colorado? He's played much better in front of the same defence, so even if you argue that the defence hasn't given Smith much of a chance... Rittich has been saving a lot of these. He locked the door after a rough start against these same Avs, so it seemed like a great start schedule-wise as well. But Peters is definitely into 'benefit of the doubt' territory for me, so I'm curious as to what it is we're not seeing.
Is this an adjustment to the new padding Peters knows Smith will flip a switch on (but has been looking promising in practice)? Does he want to give Smith every opportunity now, so it's clear when they have to make the switch? Is there something that Peters still sees that leads him to believe more starts for Rittich will immediately result in losses? I don't know what it is, but I'm more sure that it's something we're not seeing than I normally am with coaches. Optics aside, it's tough to make a case that we have a better chance winning with Smith in net isn't it? |
I can see the thinking ... you want your number one guy to be your number one guy. So some patience and or stubbornness in this direction makes sense to me to a degree.
What I'm guessing will apply a limit to this though is the fact that Smith is on an expiring contract.
It's one thing to have a guy with three years and $18M left on a contract struggling and the need to get him going. At some point Rittich will be given some rope to run with because Smith isn't the long term solution anyway.
If Rittich flounders they'll go shopping.