Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Approaching game four I think it's a little early to start talking about Smith's workload is it not? Winning games early in the season is pretty important because if the team starts in a hole then there's more pressure to play Smith in December/January where he may need some breaks. I would be trying to bank as many points early as possible.
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The only reason we talk about this is Francis, and I think he had to get it from somewhere. My guess is this was the plan all along, but a shutout has influenced them to make the exception.
And it makes sense, as I think 55-60 games will be the sweet spot, which means over 1/4 of the games need to be taken by Rittich/Gillies/Parsons. If you're scheduling it, you're probably only going to be scheduling your backup for 1-2 games at a time which works out to Smith only playing 3-4 game stretches. I'll bet starting 2 openers against the Canucks has the schedule a bit weird, and we'd likely have been starting a backup in one or both of those games.
The only issue I have with it is altering plans to start the 'hot goalie' when it seems like that is the night Smith should be taking off if anything. But if this was the plan all along, they have to plan on winning with their backup in net quite often.