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Originally Posted by Textcritic
I don't believe that anyone is invested in "getting Smith going." He is what he is. What he is is a goalie who will win some games and lose others. He will often allow bad goals, but will still manage to pick up wins here-and-there.
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I'm really curious about what wins you think Smith 'picked up'. I've seen a lot more 'despite Smith' wins than I have 'good thing Smith started'.
I'm not saying there's zero, so we'll start with snuffing that retort. But I'm curious which ones you were happy we had Mike Smith as the Calgary goaltender that night.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Why must it have been one or the other? I suspect that having watched Gillies in a couple of practices the coaches decided he was not ready to play in Boston. Why can it not be just as simple as that?
As for "mov[ing] on" from Gillies, why? Just because he does not appear ready to play in the NHL now does not mean that he could be ready to play next year. Gillies may be a terrible option to play NHL games, and yet is still a valuable asset for the team who may still believe that he can be a NHL goalie in the future. This is not a decision that needs to be made today.
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I never said this, and made multiple efforts to assure that no-one misconstrued that.
And it doesn't have to be one or the other. I'm wondering why the decision was made as I thought there were multiple reasons to give Gillies Boston.
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Originally Posted by Textcritic
I don't believe that anyone has said that Smith is a good option. What I continue to maintain is that there are NO GOOD SOLUTIONS right now. The Flames would be best to trade for a goalie, but also need to ensure that available options present a tangible upgrade for a reasonable cost. The reason I continue to pass over suggested trade or waiver options is that either 1) the player does not provide a tangible upgrade on Mike Smith, or 2) the cost is probably prohibitive.
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What confuses me is how you know that.
There's tons of options, and you've seen names move around the NHL in the last few weeks. Mike Smith is really bad. It's more likely that most available will be an upgrade to what we've seen this season.
Is Mike Smith better than Michael Hutchinson?
Would a 2020 fifth-round draft pick have been prohibitive?
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Originally Posted by Textcritic
Once again, this is NOT about "letting Smith work it out." This is about making the best of a bad situation with no easy solutions. The best way forward is to keep going, and to hope that something shakes out closer to the trade deadline.
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Well fingers crossed!