Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
Smith still has worse numbers than rittich. What sort of message does this send to BSD?
"Hey Dave, we know we gave Mike about 25 starts and he was pure garbage, and you had top 5 goalie numbers through your first 20. Recently though we think you've come down to a top 20 tendy range so instead we're gonna keep going with this guy who has worse stats than most of the goalies who have started for philly this year. Hes almost got his save percentage back to .9!! Sorry, we just have a long history with mike and frankly we dont like you."
How are we supposed to build rittichs confidence this way? He is a far more important asset both immediately and long term. Mike smith should be playing in the ahl right now. I would be discouraged if I was BSD.
|
Why wouldn't an NHL veteran who's proven they can be a starter, that we are trying to figure out if they've finally just hit the end of the road or are just in a slump, than a 2nd year goalie who's track record to date is can be good in streaks but only sustained opportunity to be a number one last year was disastrous, get different treatment paths?
I don't say that to knock on Rittich, I actually full faith in him taking this starters job and am cheering for that for no other reason than it's the best short and long term thing for the Flames. I bring it up because people get so fussed over "exact" same treatment for each and every player. But the truth of the matter is, no player is ever in the exact same situation as the other.
Maybe the Flames have treated the two differently, but that would make sense to me given one is a up coming goalie who we are hoping can be our number one, and the other is a veteran goalie hitting the end of their career who we hope still has some gas left in the tank.
I feel like players understand that too, and I don't think Rittich can look back at what's gone on this year and feel like the Flames aren't giving him a chance, so who cares. Also Rittich appears to be far more mentally tough that you give him credit for, and if this little adversity is rocking his confidence (which I doubt it is) we don't want him near our net come playoff time.