Covid Jersey Vote - Best #41 Flames History

[getbak]

[ForeverFlameFan]

Mike Smith saved us from being blown out in the Avs series. I get he’s an Oiler now, but when he was hot he was hot. Wish we had potted some goals for him in that series.

[CSharp]

This is one of those pen throwing moments where's it's basically a toss-up between the 3 players.

[TheScorpion]

You guys are nuts (nuts! I tell you!), this is Smith by far.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

You guys are nuts (nuts! I tell you!), this is Smith by far.

you know I'm sure he's the right answer, but I'm not sure 'by far'. about the only things I'll give him is the Anaheim win and the playoffs which didn't mean much anyways


otherwise I think over his total tenure he provided below average goaltending, at a moderate to high acquisition cost and price tag, and was high maintenance and threw his teammates under the bus at times to boot.



and now he's an Oiler


not a fan

[transplant99]

Yeah...Boyd was a guy on an NHL team, but wasnt an NHL'er per se. He was not a very good player.

Smith did a lot of good things and a lot of bad. I get the hate but in determining who was the best player to wear that number? The answer is obvious IMO.

Everyone has their own criteria though.

[TheScorpion]

@loooooob All those things may be true (although I think he was above-average aside from a bad 10-game stretch in Oct-Nov 2018.

But Dustin Boyd? Really? He only played like 50 games in this number and they weren't particularly good... he was much better once he switched to 16 and even then he wasn't even close to being at the level of Smith's peak. And Alan May only played seven games here.

I have no reservations at all about saying Smitty was the best 41 by far. Maybe if Boyd had played his whole career here in 41 this would be a conversation.

(To be fair, I was largely a Smith fan, which does skew my opinion slightly).

[looooob]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

@loooooob All those things may be true (although I think he was above-average aside from a bad 10-game stretch in Oct-Nov 2018.

But Dustin Boyd? Really? He only played like 50 games in this number and they weren't particularly good... he was much better once he switched to 16 and even then he wasn't even close to being at the level of Smith's peak. And Alan May only played seven games here.

I have no reservations at all about saying Smitty was the best 41 by far. Maybe if Boyd had played his whole career here in 41 this would be a conversation.

(To be fair, I was largely a Smith fan, which does skew my opinion slightly).

ok fair enough - I was considering the entire body of work of Boyd at 41- forgot about 16


I guess I would have to revisit the Smith tenure, I have a hard time squaring that he was an above average goalie for all but 10 games- didn't feel that way to me

[TheScorpion]

The 2017-18 season was great for Smitty on a horrible team... 2018-19 was more of a rollercoaster ride, he was brutal to begin, but his numbers got better afterwards although I still wonder how much of that is due to his being played against worse and worse competition.

GSAA (Goals saved above average) is a very good indicator of how a goalie ranks compared to the league average... in 17-18 he saved 6.98 more goals than an average goalie would, pretty good. The next year he allowed 12.65 more goals than the average goalie would... but GSAA is a cumulative stat so I'd be willing to bet that's skewed by the opening two months of the year.

But Smith played at the level of a top #1 goalie in 17-18 and was the only thing keeping them in the race until he got hurt against NYI

[Bingo]

I wasn't all that anti-Smith when he was here, and I'm certainly not now to the point where he loses out to a tweener and a guy that was here for 8 games.

His first year was great, but he got hurt and the team fell.
His second year he struggled, but then regained his form for the most part in the second half when Rittich stumbled and was good in the playoffs (though not as great as the legend has become).

[ditty]

Dustin Boyd went on to play for Kazakhstan!

[dissentowner]

Boyd. He would have carved out a decent career if he had been given a real shot.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

GSAA (Goals saved above average) is a very good indicator of how a goalie ranks compared to the league average... in 17-18 he saved 6.98 more goals than an average goalie would, pretty good. The next year he allowed 12.65 more goals than the average goalie would... but GSAA is a cumulative stat so I'd be willing to bet that's skewed by the opening two months of the year.

I guess my interpretation of the same data is over the 2 years his was a below average goalie- and if we are going to excuse his 2 months of bad play one year I just think on balance we should take away his 2 months of best play


anyways I get it my dislike of him is a bit irrational- he's clearly better than Boyd- but his net tenure in my opinion was a negative and as I said in my original post in this thread it goes back IMO to what seems to be a really low bar of what we expect around here from our goalies


Mike Smiths pretty good 17-18 season he ranked 20th in the league in GSAA and that was his good year, the following year 59th

[Press Level]

I was no Mike Smith fan, but I don't remember any "Boyd!" chants during a play-off series. I guess that's the tie-breaker for me...

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Dustin Boyd is one of those names for me in Calgarypuck history that was a lightening rod.

A huge contingent of fans felt Sutter was holding him back and that he favoured veterans and was squandering talent.

The fact that he moved on and didn't find traction felt like closure to me. Sometimes guys aren't in the lineup because they shouldn't be.

That may be the kindest way i have ever seen someone say that a player sucked.

Also spot on....the guy sucked.

[CSharp]

The one thing Smith did was he shutout the Ducks at The Pond and broke the longest winning streak to one team of all sports that the Ducks held against the Flames! When that curse was ended, the Ducks are now on their downward trend - Yay!

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Bingo

A huge contingent of fans felt Sutter was holding him back and that he favoured veterans and was squandering talent.

The fact that he moved on and didn't find traction felt like closure to me. Sometimes guys aren't in the lineup because they shouldn't be.

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Boyd. He would have carved out a decent career if he had been given a real shot.

[N-E-B]

Even though he was bad, Smith was a warrior. I could never fault his effort.

Drove me nuts when he’d blame his defenseman though.

[BurningYears]

Has Boyd signed yet?

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Roughneck

28 games played in the NHL after leaving Calgary at age 23, then to the AHL and then KHL never to return?

Wouldn't be much of a fight!