Quote:
Originally Posted by wingmaker
Mmm, I don't think that is a correct characterization of the goals. Watch the clips. He is reacting in time. This is not a slow reaction problem. On most of the "bad goals", he is in position and either makes the save but lets the puck through his pads, whiffs on the puck with his glove, or does not adequately cut off the angle the shot is being taken from. He is not scrambling or trying to get back into the play, he is ready for the puck but missing it. They are straight up gaffs.
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So Smith is in good position on most goals against... If he was out of position that would be much easier to coach and fix, but if he just whiffs on pucks and can't react to the shots in time or where he thinks his glove, pad or blocker should be then that is something that is much harder to fix. I'd say that being at the wrong angle is fixable through coaching and hopefully easy but as for whiffing and just letting pucks through, I am very concerned that the cause is age, diminishing skill and slowed reaction time and I think those things are much harder to coach and maybe impossible to correct.
He just seems to have fallen off a cliff skill wise over the past season and up until now.
I don't cut him any slack because he whines about nothing being his fault after every game and he refuses to take the blame solely on him. If he would be a leader and accept responsibility publicly for the goals against then I would be more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt but his unwillingness to stand up and say "you know, I ####ed up and let in 3 bad goals, I need to be better" instead of the response we've always got from him after losses: "We didnt play well defensively", "the team made some mistakes in the defensive zone"
If he wants to bemoan the defense, then do it behind closed doors but be a man and own your ####ty play in front of the media.