Mike Smith's... woes? He blows? Eating crows? Who knows! (Also David Rittich exists!)

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

This is silly. You know that the goalie isn’t generally physically fighting against resistance to claim his space, getting body checked, or doing the equivalent of outright sprinting every shift, right? There is sometimes sustained pressure in the zone, that gets the heart rate up, but often the puck comes down in the zone and exits without the goalie having to exert himself too much.

You know that beyond a lot of time standing around, there are TV timeouts and intermissions, right?

Good god, think of the mental fatigue the players get with the coaches in their ears and the iPads on the bench. I bet they just wish they could have some quiet time down in the crease.

I don’t get how guys like you are trying to make goaltending some monumental physical challenge that it really isn’t.

That anybody thanks garbage like that is laughable.

They also do 'extreme yoga' about 15 times a night that would likely result in a life-long injury for pretty much any other human aside from cirque performers...

The 30 minutes that they are 'on' is spent trying to track a little black dot through 10 moving bodies and doing their best to put their body in front of it.

Originally Posted by Red

Huge difference between 1st and 2nd in the 1st round seeding. Play your best players or rest Rittich in to a first round matchup against a Sharks team or LV.
I know what choice I would make.

The alternative is a 'hot' team that has already been in playoff mode for the last month. Then playing LV or SJ in the 2nd round. IMO we can't worry too much about who we have to play or when. It would be nice to have home ice for a 7th game...but it would be even nicer to not need a 7th game...

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Kipper went from 38 to 74 in one year.

Smith last 7 is 3-3-0 with a no decision and let in 4+ in 4 out of 7. We are getting a lot of mileage out of the 6 game win streak, but when the team requires the goaltender to contribute, he seems to come up short.

He won 3 (if not 4) playoff series the year he played 38.

He started 74+ games for the next four years. 0-4 in the playoffs.

Of course, I'm not saying a rested Kipper wins those rounds by himself. If those teams weren't good enough to play a dozen teams in front of a backup, then they probably just weren't good enough to win a series.

Plenty of guys have demonstrated that it's possible to do it 75+ times in a season. Very few have shown that they can still maintain peak performance in May or later. You can argue correlation vs. causation if you want, but Brodeur appears to be the only guy really immune to this in the last few decades.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by zamler

Mike Smith is defended way more than he should be given he's the worst goalie in the league. There shouldn't be anyone defending him in any way, just say yep he's a great guy but doesn't have it anymore. Done.

God. How I wish this is what people would resign themselves to posting. But, no. We instead get to read over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over about all the shots Mike Smith didn’t stop; and all the shots he should have stopped; and all the times he “flopped” on the ice; and all the times he plays the puck behind the net; and all the times he should have stopped pucks in games in which he didn’t even play.

Please, can we only talk about how he doesn’t have it anymore and be done with it instead of the never ending hyperbole? My god, what an improvement that would make.



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[zamler]

I have no idea if you're being sarcastic or not.

[BACKCHECK!!!]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

God. How I wish this is what people would resign themselves to posting. But, no. We instead get to read over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over about all the shots Mike Smith didn’t stop; and all the shots he should have stopped; and all the times he “flopped” on the ice; and all the times he plays the puck behind the net; and all the times he should have stopped pucks in games in which he didn’t even play.

Please, can we only talk about how he doesn’t have it anymore and be done with it instead of the never ending hyperbole? My god, what an improvement that would make.



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I basically feel like everything posted after the thread title has been superfluous.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by BACKCHECK!!!

I basically feel like everything posted after the thread title has been superfluous.

Not really.

Because it assumes that the active costing of games is worth spending assets to fix.

That is only the case if you believe that Smith might cost us home ice advantage or that if Rittich got hurt whatever backup you brought in could support a playoff run.

And then you have to believe that the assets spent on a backup goalie wouldn’t be better spent elsewhere or just held for future.

In my opinion Upgrading the backup goalie position at this point is a waste of assets.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I agree. But here’s the thing, we’ve always had a bad backup. Sauve, Boucher, Mclellan, McElhinney, Joseph, Keetley, Toskala, Karlsson, Irving, MacDonald, Berra.

Rittich was the last good back up last season and he struggled big time when relied on as a starter.

You’d think it wouldn’t be such a surprise anymore. We don’t win when our back up plays. It’s been consistent for 15 years. It matters less this year than it ever has because he’s not gonna cost us a playoff spot and yet people are out of their minds, foaming at the mouth, wishing injury on Smith angry because he reduces our chances at victory when he plays. It’s embarrassing the level of panic.

I don't know about that as not many (if any at all) of those goaltenders you listed got close to a 25+ game sample size in a single season like Smith has this season. I don't recall a Flames backup that's been as bad as Smith relative to the rest of the league. Smith now is all alone in last spot in SV% among top 50 NHL goaltenders. If not for Hiller I would say he's easily the worst goaltender over the last 15 or 20 years for this organization given the amount of starts he's received.

I guess the issue is that if Rittich slumps or gets injured before the playoffs that the team is pretty well finished as it's one thing to win with your backup but another thing to win with the worst backup goaltender in the NHL.

[Wolfman]

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by Moderator

Wishing for him to break his leg is over the line and embarrassing for this site

Wishing for him to break a leg isn't funny, unlike when Juolevi needed knee surgery.

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Hilarious news.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I don't know about that as not many (if any at all) of those goaltenders you listed got close to a 25+ game sample size in a single season like Smith has this season. I don't recall a Flames backup that's been as bad as Smith relative to the rest of the league. Smith now is all alone in last spot in SV% among top 50 NHL goaltenders. If not for Hiller I would say he's easily the worst goaltender over the last 15 or 20 years for this organization given the amount of starts he's received.

I guess the issue is that if Rittich slumps or gets injured before the playoffs that the team is pretty well finished as it's one thing to win with your backup but another thing to win with the worst backup goaltender in the NHL.

Not really a fair game count, since Smith wasn't intended to be the backup. Of course he got more games in a row at the beginning of the year, plus there was that six game winning streak where Peters didn't want to switch gears.

But for reference: Berra, Ortio and Macdonald combined for 49 games (to Ramo's 40). The Chad had 36 games. Ortio had 22 games, Hiller had 26 and Ramo had 37 in 15-16. Ramo played 34 in 14-15. Macdonald had 21 games to Kipper's 24 (in the lockout season). And before that you had Kipper playing huge numbers, and burning himself out in the process.

[Split98]

IMO, there's 2 things you can be upset about with the Smith situation... and they're both marching towards irrelevance.

1. When Smith is in net, the games are more difficult to win. This is something that was upsetting at the start of the season when more games were ahead of us Smith needed to start in. Now, it's too late. The amount of games a replacement backup will play enters 'who cares' territory if you make peace with not catching TB. Knowing that this team can still pull Ws with Smith in net, we could be looking at 'frustrating to watch' as the only real downside to having Smith on the roster still

2. Goalie stability, and confidence in Rittich. At this point though, if Rittich isn't our #1 or there's a stumble... it'd have been a miracle if we rode our backup deep into the playoffs anyway. If this team is successful, it's with Rittich.


All it is now is a mark on management's record, right along with Brouwer and co. Otherwise, it's hardly going to affect this team much going forward. All that's left is 'where could we be without those Smith games?', but it's in the past.

That being said, if there's a good backup option that helps us next year too... I won't be upset to resolve this (now much smaller) Smith problem.

TBH, if that WSH and DET games were steps towards what he can bring the rest of the season, I'm fine with it. There's a better chance we'd have won that with Rittich, but hopefully the schedule doesn't have us playing our backup against a top team again. In hindsight, I think the win in CAR is going to resonate better in the locker room than a win in WAS.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Wishing for him to break a leg isn't funny, unlike when Juolevi needed knee surgery.

Brilliant post.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Wishing for him to break a leg isn't funny, unlike when Juolevi needed knee surgery.

Reads to me like he was being sarcastic because news in that thread is usually news we find funny about how the Canucks suck. Instead a Canucks fan posts boring news in the V=NG thread.

I’d sure hope someone wasn’t making fun of a serious injury on an opposing player.

[Robbob]

This thread is pretty brutal. There are thousands and thousands of events each and every game, to definitively state x would be different if y happened to me doesn't make sense. At the end of the day it is what it is and in the grand scheme of things, if our backup goalie is our biggest issue then I think we are good.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Reads to me like he was being sarcastic because news in that thread is usually news we find funny about how the Canucks suck. Instead a Canucks fan posts boring news in the V=NG thread.

I’d sure hope someone wasn’t making fun of a serious injury on an opposing player.

The very next post was another mod posting, in essence, that it wasn't something to laugh about. I think we're all familiar enough with that poster to safely assume the intent.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Robbob

This thread is pretty brutal. There are thousands and thousands of events each and every game, to definitively state x would be different if y happened to me doesn't make sense. At the end of the day it is what it is and in the grand scheme of things, if our backup goalie is our biggest issue then I think we are good.

lol. Are you getting interviewed by Scott Oake or something?

[Textcritic]

I personally love the thread title change. Nicely done, Scorp.

[TheScorpion]

It beats "The Whoas! of Dougie Hamilton," that's for sure.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

It beats "The Whoas! of Dougie Hamilton," that's for sure.

No way! "Whoas!" was some of my best work.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

No way! "Whoas!" was some of my best work.

Alas, I believe this to be true...

[TheScorpion]

Impossible. "Whoas!" is improper grammar. It should've been "'Whoa!'s."