[GDT] Anaheim Ducks @ Calgary Flames (SN West)

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Mike Smith has played against:

Washington. 4 goals against. .900 Sv%.
San Jose (in relief). 3 goals against. .875 Sv%.
Florida. 2 goals against. .938 Sv%.
Pittsburgh. 4 goals against. .895 Sv%.
Arizona. 2 goals against. .931 Sv%.
NYI. 2 Goals against. .895 Sv%.

Every single game he's played against a team currently in a playoff spot he's had a .900 or below Sv%.

For the love of god. Mike Smith is not back from the abyss. He's managed to somewhat keep it together against some of the worst teams in the league (congrats on being slightly above average against Florida?), and has been absolutely victimized by the offensively talented teams. Even the NYI, who are incredibly low scoring, put an .895 Sv% on him. Halfway through the game he'd let in two goals on ten shots....., and one of them was him swimming through the crease and knocking the puck into his own net because of it.

Let's pump the brakes here on the Mike Smith train. Guy has been acceptable against non-playoff caliber teams, and mediocre at best against actual contenders.

But Smith gets a pass because he's a veteran goalie, or maybe he has compromising pictures of Peters.

A .938 save percentage in the Florida game is just slightly above average? Tough crowd! There's plenty to pick on with Smith without hammering him for good games!

[JJolg]

And rittich has been downright poor at home. Games this time of year mean more, have more pressure. Ritter had the chance against the team were battling with the Sharks and wasn't ready. I got no problem running with Smith right now, you can tell the game against the isles was game planned with Smith in mind, he was extra involved in stopping the forecheck I expect more of the same.

I expect Peters understands where his goalies are at and which to play when, I'm also sure it doesn't involve save% or NHL.com stats

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Bingo

A .938 save percentage in the Florida game is just slightly above average? Tough crowd! There's plenty to pick on with Smith without hammering him for good games!

Seems fair to state that the difference of .915 to .938 (0.023 Sv%) is a slightly above average performance?

I'm not taking away from the fact that he's got points in most of his recent games. I'm a Flames fan. I want the team to win.

The narrative that he's the better goalie is what I'm not convinced about. Is he currently getting wins? Definitely.

Is he a current beneficiary of good team play and a softer part of the schedule? Definitely.

[Stanley]

Peters likes Smith's puck handling ability and how it relates to our transition game - Rittich really hasn't done himself any favours in that dept.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Seems fair to state that the difference of .915 to .938 (0.023 Sv%) is a slightly above average performance?

I'm not taking away from the fact that he's got points in most of his recent games. I'm a Flames fan. I want the team to win.

The narrative that he's the better goalie is what I'm not convinced about. Is he currently getting wins? Definitely.

Is he a current beneficiary of good team play and a softer part of the schedule? Definitely.

Well the leader in save percentage is .931 and .915 is the average so I'd say being better than the best has been all season should get you more accolades.

But I get it ... Smith does good, doesn't count ... Rittich does bad, doesn't count.

(that's not on you specifically, but certainly a theme)

What kills me is that I have to ward this crap off when I'm not even saying Smith or his numbers are good.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Seems fair to state that the difference of .915 to .938 (0.023 Sv%) is a slightly above average performance?

I'm not taking away from the fact that he's got points in most of his recent games. I'm a Flames fan. I want the team to win.

The narrative that he's the better goalie is what I'm not convinced about. Is he currently getting wins? Definitely.

Is he a current beneficiary of good team play and a softer part of the schedule? Definitely.

That's just it, the results are coming right now and are certainly not on the back of him stealing games or even being efficient in net. Even in a good game there are still too many "what the heck was that" moments and at least 1, maybe even 2 brutal goals. It won't last. Fans can be naive in their view all they want about Smith but sooner or later this little hiccup of results will revert back to the body of work we've witnessed over the last 80 or so starts.

Would anyone actually chose Smith over Rittich to start a playoff series right now? I wouldn't. Maybe if we are talking about a 20 game run in 6 weeks it will be a different story, but I find even typing that notion to be pretty outlandish given the only above average starts he's had have been against relative doormat teams since the calendar flipped.

At least Rittich has beaten some of the league's best and posted good numbers in doing so. Almost all of Smith's wins against the league's best offer quite the opposite figures and is more of a case of having one of the best teams in the league in front of him. You have to go all the way back to December 8th against Nashville to find an above average result against a good team.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

That's just it, the results are coming right now and are certainly not on the back of him stealing games or even being efficient in net. Even in a good game there are still too many "what the heck was that" moments and at least 1, maybe even 2 brutal goals. It won't last. Fans can be naive in their view all they want about Smith but sooner or later this little hiccup of results will revert back to the body of work we've witnessed over the last 80 or so starts.

Would anyone actually chose Smith over Rittich to start a playoff series right now? I wouldn't. Maybe if we are talking about a 20 game run 6 weeks it will be a different story, but I find even typing that notion to be pretty outlandish.

Who is being naive exactly? What comments are suggesting that people think Smith has fixed his troubles and is now the man?

Why the extremes dude?

[Stanley]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

That's just it, the results are coming right now and are certainly not on the back of him stealing games or even being efficient in net. Even in a good game there are still too many "what the heck was that" moments and at least 1, maybe even 2 brutal goals. It won't last. Fans can be naive in their view all they want about Smith but sooner or later this little hiccup of results will revert back to the body of work we've witnessed over the last 80 or so starts.

Would anyone actually chose Smith over Rittich to start a playoff series right now? I wouldn't. Maybe if we are talking about a 20 game run 6 weeks it will be a different story, but I find even typing that notion to be pretty outlandish.

That is the ultimate question right now isn't it? Who will they start come playoff time? Unless we see Smith outplay Rittich by a fair margin down the stretch, I think fans might lose their isht if it's Smith starting Game 1 of the SCP.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Well the leader in save percentage is .931 and .915 is the average so I'd say being better than the best has been all season should get you more accolades.

But I get it ... Smith does good, doesn't count ... Rittich does bad, doesn't count.

(that's not on you specifically, but certainly a theme)

What kills me is that I have to ward this crap off when I'm not even saying Smith or his numbers are good.

I specifically didn't mention Rittich in my post for that reason, because I was trying to avoid it becoming about Smith vs. Rittich again.

.931 over the course of the season is substantially above average, given what is required to maintain a SV% that high. A SV% in that range on one or two games is not out of the ordinary, and qualifies as slightly above average for that game in isolation (in my opinion). Anyways, not really worth getting into.

Smith has been perfectly fine against lesser teams in the last two weeks, which is good for the Flames. Smith has struggled against more offensive teams, but fortunately, the Flames offense has still enabled us to pick up wins.

[Stanley]

It's also worth asking if there's any correlation between Smith getting all the starts and the trade deadline looming...

[Fan in Exile]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I said exactly that .. and that I don't like Rittich out this long.

Smith's numbers as a whole suggest he's been better, but in individual games he's not exactly lights out every night. As has been done with Rittich you can probably point to some tough ones.

Hard to argue Rittich isn't in a funk lately though.

Smith has a .915 save percentage in his last four.
Rittich has a .881 in his last three, .852 in his last four, and .886 in his last ten.

How the hell would you describe a funk?!?!

He got pulled after ten minutes against San Jose. No chance to even out the numbers. He was in for 6 against Tampa. Does anyone honestly believe Smith would have done better in that game?

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Seems fair to state that the difference of .915 to .938 (0.023 Sv%) is a slightly above average performance?

I'm not taking away from the fact that he's got points in most of his recent games. I'm a Flames fan. I want the team to win.

The narrative that he's the better goalie is what I'm not convinced about. Is he currently getting wins? Definitely.

Is he a current beneficiary of good team play and a softer part of the schedule? Definitely.

But compared to how Rittich has fared most recently, it would seem that both goalies are currently playing at about the same level—perhaps with a slight nod to Smith.

You said:

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

...Every single game he's played against a team currently in a playoff spot he's had a .900 or below Sv%...

Mike Smith has played four games against "playoff teams" most recently. David Rittich has played four games against three playoff teams since 22 Jan, and has posted 0.778 against TB, 0.667 against SJ, and 0.943 and 0.919 against Carolina. In his last full game v. SJ he recorded a 0.848, which is even lower than Mike Smith's performance in relief earlier this month.

Like Bingo said: neither goalie is playing great, and we agree that it would be preferable to see Rittich start tonight. However, it seems a fairly sensible argument to say that Rittich has not performed quite as well as Smith most recently. I just don't see why it is controversial to suggest that he has been struggling.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

He got pulled after ten minutes against San Jose. No chance to even out the numbers. He was in for 6 against Tampa. Does anyone honestly believe Smith would have done better in that game?

In his last ten games Rittich has posted a +0.900 SP in only five of them. In addition to games v. SJ and Tampa he has also recorded middling numbers against Vancouver (0.880), Florida (0.889), and Buffalo (0.826).

[Nehkara]

Not a fan of splitting up Gio and Brodie. It as been shown repeatedly that they play better together than apart, especially Brodie.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Not a fan of splitting up Gio and Brodie. It as been shown repeatedly that they play better together than apart, especially Brodie.

Giordano and Andersson looked excellent together on Wednesday. I am looking forward to seeing them again tonight.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

He got pulled after ten minutes against San Jose. No chance to even out the numbers. He was in for 6 against Tampa. Does anyone honestly believe Smith would have done better in that game?

Did we really worry about Mike Smith getting a chance to even out his numbers when he got pulled against St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Philly this year, or did we as a group think he kind of sucked?

[Flash Walken]

If the ducks beat the flames tonight it won't be the goalies fault, I can tell you that much.

[FBI]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

If the ducks beat the flames tonight it won't be the goalies fault, I can tell you that much.

With Smith in net you can NEVER say that with certainty.

We could lose 6-5 with the ducks getting 10 shots on goal and the flames getting 50 shots on goal.

[oldschoolcalgary]

go with the hot hand...

not like i have been a big smith supporter, but he's playing good enough right now...

i do think Rittich should start in Ottawa though... better on the road, needs to get some work in... Ottawa is a tonic for a goalie in a funk, esp without Stone, duchene and dzingle

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Did we really worry about Mike Smith getting a chance to even out his numbers when he got pulled against St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Philly this year, or did we as a group think he kind of sucked?

Smith:

St. Louis: Left in for 2 periods
Pittsburgh: Left in for 30 minutes
Philly: Left in for 2 periods

Rittich:

San Jose: Just under 14 minutes.


I think the San Jose pull was premature.