Its funny, thinking back over the course of the regular season. There's so many ups and downs. There's the dog days of January, there's the ridiculous travel month of February, and there's the "finding yourself" of October November. Really, that stuff shouldn't apply anymore. Desperation level should be at 100%. Compete level should be at 100%.
When I think back to some of the biggest games of the year (Boston, Tampa at home, San Jose) win or lose the Flames fought against their own demons in poor goaltending. There were games when they could outscore their poor goaltending, there were games where the goalies were excellent, but they couldn't score. I'd like to think that this time of year everything for the most part is coming together.
I think we are back to discussing how good of a goalie Mike Smith is. Not if he should even be playing right now. My best guess is he is a mid to average starter who can go hot and cold. I think his compete and experience will hopefully guard against Elliott syndrome, but I also think he still may be second best goalie in this series.
If the Flames get the powerplay going, are dug in and get adequate goaltending, I see this going 5 games max, with Colorado winning Game 3. But if the powerplay is still sputtering, the top players are still inconsistent and the goalies let in a bad goal or 2 or 3, I still see the Flames coming out of this one. But in 7.
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