Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey Connor, It's Mess
We blame him for the ####ty goalies but we don't praise him for any goaltending success. It's the CP mandate. We are circling back around to blaming him, yes.
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Which goaltending success was that?
Jonas Hiller, who lost his starting job halfway into the playoffs, and then proceeded to have probably the worst goaltending season of anyone in the NHL the last decade?
Karri Ramo, who needed to be sent down to the AHL to rehab his game, and was already slipping in his time back with Sigalet before an injury let the narrative stick at "Sigalet improved his game by telling him to play deeper in his net"?
David Rittich, who needed to be sent down to the AHL to rehab his game, and then needed a whole offseason away from Siggy to get off to another hot start, which now again seems to need rehab?
Chad Johnson, who basically carried this team into a playoff spot for the first half of a season before the team had some time off, which he spent working on his game with Sigalet and then proceeded to be ECHL caliber the rest of the year?
Brian Elliott, who while not following the long term downward trend of all the previous guys, still managed to finish his Flames career unable to make a routine save?
Mike Smith, who's been Swiss League caliber for over a Calendar year after a hot start?
Nik Backstrom, who played 3 games for us? Him, actually... awesome job Siggy!
Joni Ortio, who needed to be sent down to the AHL to rehab his game, finally did, and then was promptly let go at a ripe age 25?
I think the constant with most of these guys was hot starts and then finishes that are best described as terrifying.
You can chalk it up to a lack of talent or aging if you want, but I'm not getting fooled again. Whenever a goalie hits adversity under Sigalet it avalanches the wrong way instead of guys breaking a slump. He seems like a really nice guy, but his job is not to do nothing as goalies go on extended cold streaks.
The truth is this - Rittich's maybe not playing that poorly, and even Smith has his positive moments - but very, very few of us have any confidence these players can get back to the level they are capable and thus it's back to "let's make a trade".
Maybe we've never had the best goaltending in the world, but over Sigalet's tenure we've had the fourth worst 5v5 SV% so even if I am dead freakin' wrong I'd rather try something different than the ol' Definition of Insanity.