I'm done with him.
His play, his attitude and the way the team plays in front of him all frustrate me.
Mike Smith plays bad: "some tough bounces, some bad defensive breakdowns, I did what I could but it was it just wasn't our night"
We lose when Rittich is in net by one goal: "I needed to make that one extra save, I let the team down. I need to be better"
Obviously I'm paraphrasing but this is the kind of crap I've heard all season.
I will admit I've heard Smith humbly say he didn't know how a goal got past him before but that was after the Montreal game when he was absolutly crushed knowing he lost the team the game.
Rittich is a goalie who shoulders the responsibility of not making a save even when he knows he didn't have a chance in hell of saving a grade A chance.
Smith doesn't hold himself as accountable with even routine saves that he lets in.
I loved Smith last year and I wanted to root for him again cause he really struggled after injury last year but his comments after a loss in which he let in a bad goal after some of the games this year has made me lose all my love for the guy.
Look at his stats.
He has some of the worst stats out of any goalie in the league, starters and backups.
A second goalie we can rely on and depth scoring are things we needs to address.
If Neal can get going it will go a long way to fixing some of our depth issues but I think we've seen enough of Smith playing bad since last February to know it's not just a rough patch.
36 year old FA goalie is not worth the time to try and rejuvenate after he has struggled so mightily for almost a year now.
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