Quote:
Originally Posted by 1qqaaz
But this is exactly why the move is a bit of a head-scratcher.
After so many days off, Rittich is more than fresh. The Flames play Carolina on Sunday and Vancouver on the following Saturday. I would have thought that Smith would start one of those games.
Why would Smith go more than a month without any action? That part of your post doesn't make any sense to me. There's plenty of other games on the schedule that Smith could start. Lots of games that aren't after 8-9 day breaks.
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Mike Smith's last start was January 18th. It's already been 2 weeks since he has had any action. With the Flames playing an afternoon game on Sunday this is the closest thing they have to a back to back until January 27. It's not out of the question that Mike Smith might not get an opportunity to start again until then.
It has nothing to do with how fresh Rittich is right now. I don't think it really makes a difference who starts against Carolina or Washington. I would imagine it has always been the plan that they would each get a game.
Carolina is 6-3-1 in their last 10 (Rittich just had a great performance against them) and the Caps are 3-5-2 in their last 10 (Smith has a .947 SV% in his last 5 against Washigton and they are missing their best player)