Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
Flames work hard, tie the game and lose on a late goal against. It was a good shot, but Smith's goaltending style is fundamentally flawed. He sits deep in his net and never challenges shooters.
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This is just symptomatic of him losing his reaction time or confidence or both (age or injury related or both). He wants to put himself further away from the shooters and closer to the posts to compensate for not being able to move as quickly, but as a result gives players far better angles to shoot at.
It's not working for him, and he's saving fewer shots on average than ever. You can look at each goal and argue whether the 3rd was bad, or the GWG, or they were all too good to be saved, but the reality is almost every other NHL goalie stops more pucks on average than Mike Smith. He should have a .900 save percentage or better, and if he did, he would have saved one more of those shots that went in tonight.
To me he looks like a rookie goalie all over again, surprised by shots and over-committing at the same time.
I suspect goaltending depth will be addressed before the off-season.