[Game Takes] Ducks 4 Flames 0

[MRCboicgy]

I know it's simplistic to look at and probably not statistically significant, but just peeking at the NHL standings this morning, and the stark differences in goal differential across the league from top 4 division teams to bottom 4

Atlantic, Metro and Pacific all have the cut off, with the metro a bit closer. Of course the Central is packed tight with only the Hawks down there.

Pretty simple, eh? At the end of the day, score more goals than your opponents, and you'll probably make the playoffs...

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by VilleN

This is 100% not true. Elliott let in a soft goal most games... Smith is having a bad few games coming back from injury... other than this stretch, he's been our MVP.

Actually the decay was before the injury ...



Not trying to pile on the guy, but it's a discussion that needs to happen for next season.

Losing it?
Over used?
Blip on the radar?

[VilleN]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Actually the decay was before the injury ...


Not trying to pile on the guy, but it's a discussion that needs to happen for next season.

Losing it?
Over used?
Blip on the radar?

Fair enough. I think he's been as solid of a goaltending acquisition as we could have hoped for this season, and I don't think he should bear much of the blame for this season's poor results. Looking at that graph though, I'd guess we probably rode him a little too hard, especially as a 35 year old net minder.

[442scotty]

This team is a top 2 winger AND a goalie AND especially a new coach away. And if Treliving doesn't stop bringing in players like Brouwer, Raymond, Jagr and trading away our first round picks for Hail Mary passes then he can go too.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by VilleN

This is 100% not true. Elliott let in a soft goal most games... Smith is having a bad few games coming back from injury... other than this stretch, he's been our MVP.

Outside of the playoffs I wouldn't say Elliott let in a lot of soft goals. I would say Elliott made less clutch or big saves (he got beat on shots at times you would hope your starter to come up with a save) compared to Smith but he never let in all these long shots or the amount of soft 5-hole goals. I feel too many people forget that before the playoffs Elliot was very good in the 2nd half of the season which is the opposite of Smith who started off very well and tailed off in the 2nd half of the season. Not saying Elliott was better or more confidence inspiring but Smith's game dropped off in the 2nd half and was never that great at home most of the season.

[Samonadreau]

Too many starts for Smith. The guy would have 70gp this season if he didn't get injured. Given his age that's way too much. Flames should target about 55 starts for him Next season that's about 2/3 the games in the season. Would also be nice to see Rittich get at least 4 or 5 starts in here before the end of the season to see if he can hold.some consistency. I'm pretty high on Rittich and I think he could handle 25 games or so next season.

[Badgers Nose]

.915-ish is the safe expectation range for Smith next season.

Anything much higher than that is like the 3M shooting percentage last year, not sustainable.

So ask yourself what this team is with slightly above average goaltending for about 60 games next year with the remainder of the games being as predictable as a pull at the slots in term sof goalie performance, and that is what we have.

I'm pretty confident predicting that next year will be a failure. BT won't venture outside his comfort zone (over paying for low risk/low reward roster tweaks with maybe one large add) and he can't seem to tackle multiple problems at once.

This offseason he will probably weaken the roster to get picks.

My concern is that he might then overspend those picks or send our D prospects away to get scoring help, because what else can he do?

Then after next season BT will be gone and I'd expect bold roster decisions in 2019/20 from whomever replaces him.

Flames need close to a complete roster revamp:

1. top end RW or at least better NHL calibre depth in that position
2. functioning 3rd and 4th lines
4. redistribution of cap space from the 4-5 D positions to scoring

Outside of 4-5 players no one should feel safe.

If a simple coach change accomplishes that, then GG is probably the worst coach ever. LOL

[Strange Brew]

The goalie chart is very telling. And easy to understand so thanks Bingo for that.

When receiving all star play from their goalie, Flames were an average team, sitting around the playoff cut line.

With average to below average goaltending, this is one of the worst teams in the league.

Of course that doesn't answer what's wrong, but I would argue that has been the story last two seasons.