[Game Takes] Flames 2 Penguins 1 (OT)

[Bingo]

Flames Beat Pens in Overtime

- Kulak / Stone pairing at 58% in terms of shot attempts
- Third line looks dangerous but can't put one home.
- Mike Smith
- Top line rolling
- Matthew Tkachuk channelling some 50's NHLer

[Huntingwhale]

Mike Smith is beautiful

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Flames Beat Pens in Overtime

- Matthew Tkachuk channelling some 50's NHLer

"Terrible Ted" Lindsay? See some parallels in regards to showmanship.

Irrascible and tenacious? Check.

Skill and snark? Check.

[Strange Brew]

Put me in the camp of those who would have preferred Raanta over Smith. Flames record would be abysmal at this point if they’d done that and the Islanders would be staring at a juicy draft pick. So I don’t know much.

Maybe not surprising the back to back team had a great first period against they very rested team, but it caught up to them. In the end a game that could have gone either way but Smith unlucky not to have gotten a shutout.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Put me in the camp of those who would have preferred Raanta over Smith. Flames record would be abysmal at this point if they’d done that and the Islanders would be staring at a juicy draft pick. So I don’t know much.

Bottom line it was a gamble either way.

The Bishop model comes with a huge contract in dollars and term.
The Raanta model comes with uncertainty of not knowing what he would look like out of the Rangers system.
The Smith/Howard/Fleury model (my three picks) had the risk of the wheels coming off.

The best thing about model three to me was the fact that you wouldn't plug a goaltender in that would hamper your ability to promote Gillies/Rittich or Parsons down the road.

Nobody saw him playing this well of the hop though. Even if he subsides somewhat we can look back to the first 13 games of the season and how he saved their bacon until they got their act together.

[gunnner]

I hope he saves some of this for the playoffs. I worry about a 35 year old with such a work load. I hope we still get into the playoffs with him playing 60 games or so like Rinne did last year. Cant have a 35 year old with a 70 game work load in my opinion.

[Tinordi]

The book on Smith is that he runs really hot then goes really cold. We're in a protracted hot steak with Smith which is great but, based on his history, a stretch of games is coming when he won't be the best goalie on the ice.

It's why the scoring issue is so urgent. We know that, to win some games were going to have to outscore the other team, not rely on Smith shutting the door because Smith can't be relied on to do that for a whole season. He's just never shown that ability.

It's also why I like the move for Lack. Hopefully the Flames will recognize that Lack's window is opening up and give Smith a break.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by gunnner

I hope he saves some of this for the playoffs. I worry about a 35 year old with such a work load. I hope we still get into the playoffs with him playing 60 games or so like Rinne did last year. Cant have a 35 year old with a 70 game work load in my opinion.

Agreed. My hope is to see a few starts from Lack in Nov. He looked fine to me in his lone start in St Louis this year. I can’t really fault the Flames for Smith’s workload through Oct. The schedule was weird with the number of long breaks between games, so it never appeared like fatigue would be an issue, nor that the coaches were riding him excessively.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

The book on Smith is that he runs really hot then goes really cold. We're in a protracted hot steak with Smith which is great but, based on his history, a stretch of games is coming when he won't be the best goalie on the ice.

It's why the scoring issue is so urgent. We know that, to win some games were going to have to outscore the other team, not rely on Smith shutting the door because Smith can't be relied on to do that for a whole season. He's just never shown that ability.

It's also why I like the move for Lack. Hopefully the Flames will recognize that Lack's window is opening up and give Smith a break.

Pretty much.

But when you think of it the timing is perfect. The Flames are going through a period of time where they're not filling the net, and the goalie is bailing them out.

They'll find their groove and maybe Smith slides at the same time and the team continues to move up the standings.

Talent comes into it for sure, but when you look at some key metrics you see the Flames ...

Five on five
5th in Corsi for Events per game at 47.8
11th in five on five shots per game at 24.2
15th in scoring chances per game at 8.3 (12th in scoring chances against and a positive 0.5 scoring chances per game).

This isn't a team getting out played, especially if you take the first game of the season out of the mix.

[Bingo]

Looking at all situations (included PP)

7th in Corsi for Events per game at 61.3
15th in shots per game at 31.7
11th in scoring chances per game at 12.1 (14th in scoring chances against and a positive 1.0 scoring chances per game).

[atb]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Looking at all situations (included PP)

7th in Corsi for Events per game at 61.3
15th in shots per game at 31.7
11th in scoring chances per game at 12.1 (14th in scoring chances against and a positive 1.0 scoring chances per game).

The fact they are only 14th in scoring chances against is surprising. Based on watching the games I definitely would have guessed they would be in the bottom half of the league. It's scary to think how this season would have gone without Smith, which is disappointing since with the makeup of the D you would think they wouldn't need to be so reliant on Smith constantly standing on his head.

[FBI]

I think the D is actually starting to play a lot better.
Way less turnovers lately, Hamilton coming around, Hamonic too. Kulak looking good.

[Vulcan]

Our two recent sixth overall picks make up for our 97 and 98 picks of Tkaczuk and Fata.

It's good to see our captain scoring a big goal again.