Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyB
I'm not criticizing Ward for how he announced the injury. I don't care how it's announced.
It doesn't makes much sense to suggest that the schedule favored Markstrom playing nearly every game either. The Flames were facing down playing 19 games between Jan 24th and February 27th. They had a bit of a break after game 3, but since game 4 it has been a really intense schedule. They have averaged less than a full day off between games since Jan 24th.
There was plenty of talk before Markstrom got injured that he was being overused.
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Other people whined about the announcement.
A bit of a break? Markstrom had 3 games and then they had a week off, so basically they reset. After they restarted, Rittich played the 3rd game, Markstrom started two more and Rittich started again. No one was calling for Rittich after those first two starts. So, yeah, Markstrom got 7 starts in a row. And he went 4-2 until he had a terrible game against Vancouver, which is when I think he got dinged up.
Since then Rittich has started 2 games of 3. One planned, one maybe because of the injury, although arguably he would have started against Hutchinson anyway.
But the main point is that Markstrom’s injury may or may not because of overplaying and it’s foolish to just blame Ward when you don’t know, especially when he’s had a couple self-inflicted collisions, not to mention McDavid trying to run him over.