Quote:
Originally Posted by Split98
There is also a side to the 'Move Past Smith' party that will be 1000% happy with a great performance and will jump right on-board the optimism train whenever it's powered by results.
I truly would like Gillies to start this one. I understand why they haven't pulled the plug on the '36yo Mike Smith re-building his career' dream, but I'm anxious for them to find a way to give Rittich nights off for the rest of the year here. We all remember the Kipper era, so we should remember how valuable it is to have a backup that can win their schedule of games. When it comes crunch time, and you need those 2 (or 6+) points back, that schedule becomes more and more heavy on your #1.
From everything we've seen, and most worryingly how brief his most recent 'return to form' was, it is more likely that we will get better backup goaltending with Smith out of the lineup and at some point a decision has to be made. With Smith's propensity to subtract 2 points from our potential year-end total all by himself it's a matter of how much rope everyone is willing to give.
Mike Smith doing well is far less important than the Flames doing well to me - and Smith in the net is a worse option than a very large amount of very cheap (and potentially already on our payroll) options.
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From everything we have seen it is most likely that Smith will continue to win at least as many games as he loses. All season long he has had some really high-end performances amid some terrible ones—I see no reason to expect that he suddenly now be nothing but awful from here forward, and it is laughable to suggest that the Flames's #3 goalie with worse numbers in an inferior league will be an upgrade.