I find the this Smith thing to be the most interesting Flames related debate in a long time. I'm sure I come off as a Smith apologist, but I'm actually not.
I think the "mood and tone" from the Fan base towards Smith is overly negative vs. what he deserves based on his play........and for the record, I think his play in the first part of the season was every bit as terrible though as people say it was.
So I find my self asking, why do many Flames fans hate him so much? Far more hate then a player who's been here for less than 2 seasons could reasonably accumulate, especially considering he hasn't really cost this team anything. This team was in good shape for the playoffs last year prior to him getting injured, mostly on the back of his good play, and then lost the playoffs on the back of Rittich's poor play (the guy everyone loves). This season, despite his very poor play at the start of the year, the team still finds themselves in 1st overall in the West. So really, Smith hasn't cost the Flames, or us fans anything since arriving..................yet the fan base hates the guy like he pulled a Brian Elliot on us multiple playoff seasons in a row...................why?
I think the answer is a combination of the following;
1. He's old.............. This site and Flames fans have a massive bias towards younger players. Anyone over the age of 30 is immediately written off if they have a bad stretch. So the fan base just assumes there is no good hockey left in Smith, and any playing time he gets simply wasted.
2. He's old.......but for a different reason this time. As mentioned earlier, and despite my age bias comment above, the truth of the matter is Smith can't be our long term solution. This makes us itchy. We want to know our core is set........we want to know that competing for cups for the next few years is a given because we like our team...........but we can't feel completely comfortable with that if we don't know who's playing net next year. Smith doesn't provide us with this assurance.
3. Goalie PTSD. The fact that Smith is here following the Brian Elliot and Hiller / Ramo era is a huge issue. We live in fear of our goaltending being our down fall, so there is 0 patience for goalie that has shown any tendancy towards letting in bad goals. Now of course Smith would have helped his cause massively had he not been hot garbage to start this season........but, our lack of patience with him at this point in the season has more to do with our own fears then Smith's ability IMO.
4. He's not Rittich. Likely just the counter point to the he's old point, but because Rittich "could" be our long term solution due to age if he plays well, on top of Rittich being a very likable personality all adds to a bias towards Rittich. I mean let's be honest...........Rittich's strong play especially at the start of the year has helped him massively with the fans, but it's also been valued far more than Smith's recent strong play. And Rittich actually cost us the playoffs last year, much more than any of Smith's failings have to date, but we've already moved on from that.
At the end of the day, I hope Rittich is lights out tonight, and continues to work his way into the permanent #1 position for this team and is our go to come playoffs. Why? Because if he does so it's what's best for the team long term. But I think if we are being honest, Smith has played very well for this team since the new year came around (at first in limited and easy starts, up to recently with just strong performances). Last night, the loss was on him, he cost us that game, no denying. But I'd suggest our confidence in Smith after last nights game was shaken far more than it should have been considering his numbers and performance over the past 2 months.........every goalie is going to have bad games. The problem is we are still holding him accountable for his over index of bad games at the start of the season, and I think it's because of the reasons above. Just not sure it's fair.
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