Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
Saying Neal could use consistency in his linemates is not saying he shouldn't bear blame for his lack of production nor is it saying he doesn't need to play better. Quite the opposite - it's a suggestion on how cohoes could help him to play better.
As for Smith, he has started once in the last 9 games. Just looking at the overall number of starts is extremely misleading if you want to know who Peters considers the number one goalie. Look at how many times Rittich has started lately, and who Smith drew as his single opponent. The only reason the number of starts is even close is because the team naturally thought Smith would start more at the beginning of the season, plus Smith went on a bit of a roll for six games.
|
There's no guarantee that if he played with any one specific line exclusively that it would help at all. I'm going to finish off by saying that the coaching staff needs to play him significantly less minutes because by playing him as a top 6 most used forwards is a slap in the face to every other forward on the team who've out-played, out-performed and executed at a higher clip than he has.
As for Smith, you're forgetting about the injury that took Smith out for a bit there. He was even starting as an undeserved 1A-1B of this team all the way up until his injury. That thread of his dedicated to how terrible he's been wouldn't be almost 600 posts deep if he was just getting mop up duty or the occasional back to back game.