[JohnnyB]

Smith is a very competitive guy and has expressed his hatred for the Flames. I expect he'll be driven to show his best in this series and he is admittedly a tough goalie to beat when he's on his game. I always liked that competitive drive when he was on the Flames, and he was arguably the team's best player against Colorado in the playoffs that year.

That said, he's certainly not without his vulnerabilities. In addition to being a competitive hot head, another of those vulnerabilities is that he's just really old for the NHL. Tim Thomas was 37 when he won it with Boston, so it's not like an old guy can't win, but at 40 there must be questions as to how well he'll hold up, especially if the Flames get him moving a lot in net and he has to face a barrage of high quality shots playing behind some awful team defense.

If the Flames get him moving a lot, pepper him with shots, and get in his head a bit, he could turn from one of their strongest players into a weak point of the team in a couple of games. If Smith can be thrown off his game, and if Draisaitl is dealing with injury, it's basically just McDavid against the world.