Feb 17 practice notes. Neal still missing. Smith starts vs ARI

[LWcrowfoot]

Two things I'd like to see from Smith
-Keep the goals against to two or lower.
-Score a goal

His last two games have been good, but keeping a score tight would instill some confidence. Scoring a goal would just be amazing.

As an aside can someone explain what the "Starters net" is? How does the media determine which end of the rink is the starters net? Just curious

[LWcrowfoot]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This would seem odd to me, since this has not been the plan at any point this season.

Yeah... so?

Plans change dude. You might be right but hopefully Peters is capable of adapting and changing plans unlike the last guy. Certainly the plan wasn't to play Smith three in a row right now.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This would seem odd to me, since this has not been the plan at any point this season.

Which is a bizarre statement since Smith was the planned number one. Well that didn't work out. So Peters did what a good coach does and adapts the plan.

Right now he has a goalie potentially regaining his form while his surprise number one is starting to faulter. Now is the perfect time to make the most of your situation to make sure both goalies are primed for the playoffs.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by browna

8 days.

Though the Flames likely know what it likely is, medical confirmation once back home via an MRI or whatever, would be the correct process...and given that they got in town late last night, even if they wanted to release a confirmed diagnosis ASAP, it probably wouldn’t be at earliest until later today or tomorrow anyways.

Originally Posted by transplant99

Call it day to day until inflammation goes down (regardless of a likely diagnosis)....then in 10 days (if its major) announce a timeline and retroactive him to LTIR.

Is the idea here that the flames would be over a barrel with their counter parts and potentially have to pay more in a trade now that it looks like they need a top 9 forward more than they did when Neal was in the lineup.

I suppose.

I guess they can already calculate what their ltir flexibility will be if they end up making it retroactive to the time of injury, but I feel like it's important to be able to broadcast that as well to your trade partners.

If you suddenly have more cap flexibility than you thought, won't GMs find out if you're talking bigger deals than you were before?

Is Calgary's need for a top 9 forward that much more pronounced with Neal out than when he was in? I think anyone with a brain in the league can see that weakness if I can, so I'm not sure that moves the needle much if I'm trying to trade the flames a top 9 player already. I know they already want one, but now they have a larger market to shop at because of the ltir cap flexibility.

Maybe if I'm selling a secondary tier top 9 forward, I lower my asking price a bit to make sure I get Calgary's seat when the music stops.

I'm pretty surprised more deals haven't been done if we are 8 days out. Could be a situation of Melnyk screwing up the queue with stone and Duchene.

[FurnaceFace]

Originally Posted by LWcrowfoot

As an aside can someone explain what the "Starters net" is? How does the media determine which end of the rink is the starters net? Just curious

From vaguely paying attention when at practices, I believe it is since they have two goalies out for practices, each manning a goal, the starter ends up in the Flames end net, the one they start in to begin the game.