[PGT] Poor goaltending does the team in .... AGAIN. Flames lose 6-4 to the Bruins.

[TheScorpion]

It's time for a replacement.

[Toonage]

Teams with available goalies must be grinning and jacking their prices up as we speak. It must be like TDL every day for Treliving when he makes a call and no bidding wars have even started yet.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by gamesaver

Gillies has MUCH worse numbers in the AHL then Smith in the NHL. Thats something to think about.

Compare the dmen that play in front of them and then come back.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by RedHawk12

There's nothing bad about Smith that hasn't been said so I'll approach it from another angle.

Smith has 12 wins for us this season. He's 12-9-1. He's now our backup, not starter. If our backup was Gilles or Parsons and they had a 12-9-1 record, I think we'd all be fairly happy.

Backups lose games, that's why they're backups. Anyone remember all of Kipper's backups? Every game they played i expected a loss. It was a pleasant surprise if they won one for us. I would have been ecstatic if McElhinney or McLennan or Toskala had a 12-9-1 record.

Smith is a backup now. Backups lose their fair share of games. We're playing on the second of a back-to-back against a very good Bruins team and almost won. I'm pretty happy with the effort. Hopefully Rittich comes back soon. All this crapping on Smith is nauseating. He sucks, accept it, move on.

Nope you're looking at this all wrong by looking at the full season. Mike Smith is actively getting worse as the season goes on. He was a goalie that needs to play often to stay in game shape.

He's a starter or he's finished at this age. It was clear as day that as much as he was already regressing as a starter - that he took an even bigger step back by sitting on the bench between starts.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

I don’t see anyone defending Smith overall. During the game did some people respond to overreactions on particular goals? Yeah. But this game as a final product was on him and no one disputes that. Nor does anyone dispute his poor play this year.

People were defending him as recently as last night...saying they like him as a backup. Its straight up delusional...he has won 12 of 22 games and many of those wins were the team bailing him out.

.886 save%

[Mathgod]

Originally Posted by RedHawk12

There's nothing bad about Smith that hasn't been said so I'll approach it from another angle.

Smith has 12 wins for us this season. He's 12-9-1. He's now our backup, not starter. If our backup was Gilles or Parsons and they had a 12-9-1 record, I think we'd all be fairly happy.

Backups lose games, that's why they're backups. Anyone remember all of Kipper's backups? Every game they played i expected a loss. It was a pleasant surprise if they won one for us. I would have been ecstatic if McElhinney or McLennan or Toskala had a 12-9-1 record.

Smith is a backup now. Backups lose their fair share of games. We're playing on the second of a back-to-back against a very good Bruins team and almost won. I'm pretty happy with the effort. Hopefully Rittich comes back soon. All this crapping on Smith is nauseating. He sucks, accept it, move on.

I don't remember Kipper's backups letting in the kind of ultra-soft goals that Smith has been letting in this season.

[Frank MetaMusil]

Originally Posted by sketchyt

Turns out it's really difficult to make saves at an NHL level when you sit on the goal line.

Why can't they coach this out of him though?

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by RedHawk12

There's nothing bad about Smith that hasn't been said so I'll approach it from another angle.

Smith has 12 wins for us this season. He's 12-9-1. He's now our backup, not starter. If our backup was Gilles or Parsons and they had a 12-9-1 record, I think we'd all be fairly happy.

Backups lose games, that's why they're backups. Anyone remember all of Kipper's backups? Every game they played i expected a loss. It was a pleasant surprise if they won one for us. I would have been ecstatic if McElhinney or McLennan or Toskala had a 12-9-1 record.

Smith is a backup now. Backups lose their fair share of games. We're playing on the second of a back-to-back against a very good Bruins team and almost won. I'm pretty happy with the effort. Hopefully Rittich comes back soon. All this crapping on Smith is nauseating. He sucks, accept it, move on.

Backups lose a lot of games because they are playing the second of back-to-back or are the sacrificial lamb against a powerhouse. Smith has the worst save percentage in the league. He is not fit to be a backup.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

I'll take 80% of the league's backups right now over this.

Geez, I would love to know the 6 you would not take. I think one would be hard pressed to find 3 worse backups in the NHL.

[DiracSpike]

As bad as the fifth goal was I thought the 4th was almost as bad. No confidence in that read at all by Smith, tells me he's playing scared and can't make consistent correct judgements. He's done but trading him away and getting someone good in return is going to be difficult. We'd probably have to take a bad contract or give up a high pick. I'm sure BT is on it though.

Also Neal, WTF man. I can handle you being slow, defensive liability, and not a playmaker if you kept to your pedigree as a world class finisher. How do you not bury that wide open chance that's all anyone is asking you to do as the top tier earner you are. I'm almost more rattled by him than smith tonight.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

I can see being patient if there was a sign this was turning around. There isn’t though. He’s absolutely terrible. He actually worse than Hiller and I can’t
Believe I would ever say that.

There’s nothing Mike Smith does that suggests he’s capable of turning this around. Flames need put him on waivers for assignment once Rittich is back.

No I don't mean continue being patient, I meant I understand being patient up to this point, but clearly he's still struggling.

Tre has to do something, just not sure when or for whom. There's no way he's watching tonight and thinking everything is fine.

[SmoggyFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by RedHawk12

There's nothing bad about Smith that hasn't been said so I'll approach it from another angle.

Smith has 12 wins for us this season. He's 12-9-1. He's now our backup, not starter. If our backup was Gilles or Parsons and they had a 12-9-1 record, I think we'd all be fairly happy.

Backups lose games, that's why they're backups. Anyone remember all of Kipper's backups? Every game they played i expected a loss. It was a pleasant surprise if they won one for us. I would have been ecstatic if McElhinney or McLennan or Toskala had a 12-9-1 record.

Smith is a backup now. Backups lose their fair share of games. We're playing on the second of a back-to-back against a very good Bruins team and almost won. I'm pretty happy with the effort. Hopefully Rittich comes back soon. All this crapping on Smith is nauseating. He sucks, accept it, move on.

Mike Smith makes starter money. Mike Smith is expected to make some saves to keep the team in the game. To put him out there is demoralizing for the team because even on his best nights, he still lets in at least 3 goals. 1 or 2 of them is always a back breaker. When you get paid millions of dollars to do your job THIS POORLY he deserves the criticism. The way this game was lost is the REASON we are having this discussion in the first place. If any of us performed at my work place the same way Smith does, we would all have been fired a long time ago. Don't expect this conversation to stop until Smith is replaced.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Not sure why so many people are concerned about starting Gillies. It's pretty common for a goalie to have bad numbers in front of a bad team. He's worth a look at least.

At least when Turek was done, he knew it and took a paycut (Even though they aren't allowed anymore).

[dino7c]

Newsflash: 12-9-1 is not a good record in the NHL anymore. The Oilers are over .500 for Christ sake.

[Strange Brew]

I really don’t think Gillies is any kind of answer this year. Even if he is playing behind the worst defense in the AHL, those numbers are horrific.

If the guy is lights out in practice, maybe you consider it. But I am very skeptical.

[shadowlord]

When your offense scores 4 goals, it should be good enough to win the game with competent goaltending.

Gillies may not have won the game, but I'd be happier with a Gillies loss, because he's relatively young and could still grow from the experience.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

It's time for a replacement.

Please tweet this as Derek Wills.

[jg13]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1063514491235688449

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Frank MetaMusil

Why can't they coach this out of him though?

Old dog, new tricks. Mike Smith is done.

[DuffMan]

On the 5th goal.
Hrudey - That’s one Smith has to stop.
Me - When have I heard that before/s