[Ryan Coke]

Actually, you are defending him. (PepsiFree^^^)

So the question is do you or don’t you believe his play has been too often not good enough? He has some good games, and most people aren’t arguing that, but when your bad games outnumber your strong games, and more specifically absolutely brutal goals have gone in probably 10 times this year, there is a problem regardless of how you try to spin the numbers.

So either you are arguing that his play is good in spite of the exceptionally weak goals, or you agree that his performance has been substandard.

It’s like arguing if the team loses 2-1, even if the 2 goals against were stinkers, that the team had no business winning if they didn’t score 3. It’s ok to win 1-0, or 2-1 if the team allows single digit scoring chances, you don’t need to try to rationalize why the goaltender didn’t play that badly.

There is a middle between people that want to send Mike Smith home today because he is completely useless, and the people that rationalize and defend his play, then say ‘but I’m not defending his play’.