Nov 27 Practice Notes. Valimaki now week to week. No decision on starter vs Dallas.

[AC]

Steinberg was just speculating he thinks it might be a broken bone in Valimaki's foot.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by AC

Steinberg was just speculating he thinks it might be a broken bone in Valimaki's foot.

That would really suck....moreso for his development than other reasons.

I missed the incident where he was injured....blocked shot?

[stone hands]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Yikes...hyperbole be damned!

I mean Smith has had some tire fires this year no question, but he has also been very good in some games as well...unless shutting out the Predators in Nashville was just a coincidence? Beating the Leafs in Toronto as well. The Bruins at the dome. All just flukes i guess?

Oh and practice matters a lot on every decent team in the league. As it should. Particularly with goaltending.

With skaters you can sit/limit them once a game gets going and they just dont have it on a given night, but with the G position its often to late to make a change that matters once it's clear your starter isn't at his best.

I am NOT advocating giving the starters role back to Smith BTW, i am merely saying let Peters do his job and believe he has a good grasp of who should get the start. He has earned that much from fans...no?

It's not hyperbole. He's been God awful since the middle of last year and his stats and the flames record are indicative if that. There's been at least 3 games this year where I could not believe he went to Smith over rittich and the result was about what anyone who watches this team could have told you

Just because Peter's is an nhl coach doesn't mean his logic is infailable. I know why he kept going back to Smith, but he did it for 3 games too long

Also note I said consistently good. Can't take anything away from him in the games he's played well, but the issue is that those games are few and far between. That's not even factoring in how rittich has been freaking unreal this year, which should garner him starts regardless of Smith drowning on a nightly basis for the last 6 months

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by direwolf

If Peters is using a "win and you're in" system, then it obviously it makes sense that Smith would start against Dallas. But I agree, if he craps the bed, I think Rittich officially becomes the #1 going forward.

How does that work though when Rittich pitched a shutout and then Peters went back to Smith?

[The Yen Man]

The thing with Smith is, if they want to get him going, they should ease him in with road starts. Why put him in a position to potentially fail spectacularly again by putting him in home games. Let him play a couple more road games, see if he finds his game, determine where Rittich is at, and then decide on later home games.

At this point, I'd start Rittich in both home games, and then maybe have Smith play the Hawks on Sunday in Chicago.

Honestly, I have like no confidence in Smith. I already anticipate an automatic loss for the Flames in games he starts in, unless Flames are able to score 4+ goals that game.

[GioforPM]

Rittich has had more starts in November than Smith, especially in the latter half. He has gotten the harder opponents in the second half of the month, once Peters made his decision. (Smith got only one tough opponent). Why do people not think he's the number one now, despite who starts a particular game.

With a first time number one, Peters is going to be careful and not give him a 70%-80% workload. It's going to be a transition.

[SeanCharles]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

I hear the Laval Rocket have a cheap, versatile, smooth-skating, solid first pass LD with 103 NHL GP and familiarity with much of Calgary's roster.

He was recalled last week and has already played 2 games for the Habs.

There was concern he would go back down now that Weber is getting back into the lineup but by all accounts he remains in the top 6 and they made room on the roster for him by sending Alzner down.

I liked him too but in all honesty with Hanifin, Valimaki and Kylington all as younger guys with more potential, not to mention Gio in the mix as LS dmen, it made little sense to keep him.

Treliving did Kulak a favor by shipping him out and it looks like now Kulak is reaping the benefits.

Personally I am excited to watch our 4 defensive youngsters develop and am happy they are all getting a chance which would be jeprodized if Kulak was still here.

Valimaki should be back in less than a month and with the top 4 we have in place and Peters, the young D whisperer, I'm confident in the group we have.

We still have 8 guys capable of playing in the NHL without Stone.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Savvy27

I'm really not sure what the Flames have with Czarnik. He obviously has some talent but other than some brief chemistry with Tkachuk at the start of the season he hasn't seemed to fit very well in the line up.

To his credit, I think he has been able to get a fair number of scoring chances. Maybe it is just a situation where he needs one to go in and his confidence will be restored, kind of like Derek Ryan. However, when Frolik does return, I'd like to see him back with Ryan and Neal as they were looking like a pretty decent line before Frolik went down.

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

Czarnik has been fairly pedestrian so far. It would be nice for him and Neal to find some chemistry.

With Jankowski's play recently I would really like to see him and Ryan flip lines. Even though they have the same number of points, Jankowski's production has been more impressive in both creating his own scoring chances as well as setting up his wingers.

Ryan can stay in his job of the faceoff specialist but it would be great to see Neal on Jankowski's right side instead of Hathaway.

Czarnik/Dube-Jankowski-Neal
Dube/Czarnik-Ryan-Hathaway

I could go either way with Czarnik and Dube but with the other comments here I think Dube-Jankowski-Neal would be the third line experiment I would like to see getting 3rd line minutes.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

I hear the Laval Rocket have a cheap, versatile, smooth-skating, solid first pass LD with 103 NHL GP and familiarity with much of Calgary's roster.

Man, you don't like to let things go, do you? Who is Kulak better than?

Giordano
Brodie
Hamonic
Hanifin
Andersson
Valimaki
Stone
Kylington
Prout

Prout for sure. After that...

[Hockey-and_stuff]

Originally Posted by SeanCharles

He was recalled last week and has already played 2 games for the Habs.

There was concern he would go back down now that Weber is getting back into the lineup but by all accounts he remains in the top 6 and they made room on the roster for him by sending Alzner down.

I liked him too but in all honesty with Hanifin, Valimaki and Kylington all as younger guys with more potential, not to mention Gio in the mix as LS dmen, it made little sense to keep him.

Treliving did Kulak a favor by shipping him out and it looks like now Kulak is reaping the benefits.

Personally I am excited to watch our 4 defensive youngsters develop and am happy they are all getting a chance which would be jeprodized if Kulak was still here.

Valimaki should be back in less than a month and with the top 4 we have in place and Peters, the young D whisperer, I'm confident in the group we have.

We still have 8 guys capable of playing in the NHL without Stone.

Isn't Huska the D whisperer, not Peters? That was always his calling card in junior.

I also don't think it's a big surprise that the first season he's called up to the big club we've seen marked improvement with Brodie and Hamonic.

[djsFlames]

Don't even play with fire here, Rittich in net.

Smith isn't ready for home starts.

[SeanCharles]

Originally Posted by Hockey-and_stuff

Isn't Huska the D whisperer, not Peters? That was always his calling card in junior.

I also don't think it's a big surprise that the first season he's called up to the big club we've seen marked improvement with Brodie and Hamonic.

Well he did come here with a reputation of not being afraid to give young dmen considerable minutes.

In Carolina he had no problems playing Slavin, Pesce, Hanifin et al at a very young age. Here we see it too with Andersson and Valimaki being ahead of Stone and Prout.

I do agree Huska is a good coach for our young d too.

[jlh2640]

Rittich should, but i bet its Smith. They want him to start rolling

[GranteedEV]

wrong trhread

[Red Slinger]

Originally Posted by The Boy Wonder

The issue is truly that I, and many other fans, will probably get boozed up tomorrow night and Boo smith if he lets one in early.

If you know that Smith is struggling with confidence right now and he is likely a key element for team success this season why would you boo him knowing that it's probably hurting the team?