Quote:
Originally Posted by activeStick
If I can find something else to do, I've started to try to avoid watching games when Mike Smith starts. I do scoreboard watch though and the point about timing is a good one. Last night, as an example:
- Got a notification about an early Washington goal... 3 minutes in. Yup, sounds about right.
- Flames tie it, great! Now I'm nervously waiting for the quick answer. Yup, there it is...
- 1st intermission over. Praying Washington doesn't get an early goal again... Damn it, Washington scores in under a minute LOL.
I get the comments that there isn't much Smith can do if the team is playing like hot garbage in front of him but... Isn't it a little strange that they seem to be hot garbage in front of Smith and not Rittich, the majority of times they are playing poorly? Maybe it's just coincidence or Smith just has bad luck...
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This is pure conjecture, but to me the players want to win for rittich. He let's in a bad one or the flames turn it over and it's in the back of the net, there's a concerted effort to get one back for rittich.
I see the opposite body language with regards to smith. Smith let's in a bad one and Neal comes over to tell him to 'make a ####ing save'.
Feels to me like Brian Elliott all over again.
Smith has been better in the last month I guess but he's still a below average backup even after the improvements. The flames have to score 4+ to have a chance with him in net. That shutout against Nashville in October or November is looking vanishingly small at this point.
I'd like to see his energy off the roster as soon as possible.
WINS as a metric doesn't cut it on this roster.