Player Discussion Is Smith cooked? Edit: YEAH HE IS!

[Gumbyman2]

There's no question that a lot of these criticisms are absolutely true. The thing I took issue with was that you picked one specific criticism that isn't valid and wrote your post about it. I'm really confused first of all why you chose to do that, but secondly why you're now digging your heels in with a retort that essentially amounts to "he's been bad enough that we should be able to criticise him for anything."

Anyway, just look at his past number of games. No third period goals against Washington, and several key saves to allow the team to force OT and a shootout. One third period goal against Toronto which was unstoppable, with a few key stops to preserve the win. A number of key late stops against Colorado, and one goal on a scramble where he was pushed in. And against Anaheim he was absolutely solid after the second goal.

If anything, his play late in games has been his only redeeming quality so far this year. The problem is that he is putting the team in a hole every single game. If not for that, no one would have any issues with any of his third periods lately, which means that it's not a valid criticism.

What you are failing to see is the trend that with Smith in net, we are continually behindgoing into the third so his play is not redeeming enough or valuable enough to praise him and keep playing because the rest of the tem has found a way to score thn the opponent in the third, until San Jose the other night and Montreal tonight. To go far and beinga winning team, you need a goalie to keep in the game early, consistently, not rely on "coming back" regularly after poor goals goalies are supposed to save!

 

[Anglesmith]

What you are failing to see is the trend that with Smith in net, we are continually behindgoing into the third so his play is not redeeming enough or valuable enough to praise him and keep playing because the rest of the tem has found a way to score thn the opponent in the third, until San Jose the other night and Montreal tonight. To go far and beinga winning team, you need a goalie to keep in the game early, consistently, not rely on "coming back" regularly after poor goals goalies are supposed to save!

I agree. There is no good time for a bad goal. I was not failing to see that point, it just wasn't the subject of the conversation, of which you are quoting one of the final posts.

 

[Gumbyman2]

Rumors out there that Neal and Smith got into last night for the second time. Smith made a comment about defensive miscues and Neal got on Smith and told him to make a ****ing save.

Smith had this problem in Arizona to. Always blamed the defense and scolded his team mates.

Guy is trash. Feel sorry for ya guys.

Yah I guess it is worthy to blame the defense for letting opponents shoot clear shots on net from just inside the blue-line because...the Goalie is not really there, when #41 is (supposed to be) in net

 

[Bounces R Way]

I didn't really hate the Smith trade or anything and I really like Hamonic and all but I wish one of those picks could of gone to acquiring Antti Raanta.

 

[RedHot]

If Peters starts Smith on Saturday, I’m not watching.

 

[Jihadi Flames Fan]

F*** you Mike!

 

[Mr Snrub]

I feel awful for the guy.

 

[DCDM]

If Peters starts Smith on Saturday, I’m not watching.

I'm going to that game. Murder me if Smith is announced as the starter before then.

 

[Kranix]

Rittich from here on out.

 

[Arcana]

 

[Anglesmith]

I feel awful for the guy.

Yup. I can't imagine what must have been going through his head after that GWG went in last night. I think it was his last shot of the game, too.

 

[Janks]

I feel awful for the guy.

Me too. $5.67M a year must really suck to make when you’ve been terrible at your job.

But agreed, must suck knowing that he let in a stinker to lose the game. I’m sure he’s mostly in his own head right now

 

[Nanuuk]

After last night, smith's confidence must be at an all time low. His team mates confidence in him must be low as well. It is time to give Rittich a few starts and let Smith percolate on the bench. It is time to start scouring the league and AHL for a replacement. It might cost us, but Tre has to weigh that against the current cost.

 

[Flames Fanatic]

I would say that from the start of the season until now is unarguably worse than any stretch we saw from any of our goalies since Kipper who have played more than 5 games.

Several high-profile goalies have gone through horrendous stretches in the last season or two and benefitted from being made the backup for a short time. For now, that should definitely be the move that Peters makes. Rittich needs to play games, and Smith needs to practice and take a load off for a week or two. Next time he gets in, it shouldn't be with the pressure of trying to win back his job. It should be a scheduled spot start, with the understanding that Rittich gets the next game. He shouldn't be made starter again until he's as good as a backup as Rittich is right now, and Rittich shows cracks, if he does.

Agreed.

There's literally no excuse to not play Rittich at this point. None. Until Rittich falters, it should be his job.

Hell, it should have been this way a week ago, if not sooner.

 

[DFF]

Agreed.

There's literally no excuse to not play Rittich at this point. None. Until Rittich falters, it should be his job.

Hell, it should have been this way a week ago, if not sooner.

Yes but it's not proven that rittich can be the guy

But I agree a pylon may be a better option than smith right now. At least you know what a pylon can do

 

[Flames Fanatic]

Yes but it's not proven that rittich can be the guy

But I agree a pylon may be a better option than smith right now. At least you know what a pylon can do

My comment last night was that Rittich struggling to carry the starting job last year after Smith's injury has been statistically better than Smith this year. So theres that at least lol

 

[JPeeper]

I feel awful for the guy.

If he actually took some accountability for his play I might, but he gets no sympathy from me when he makes the money he does and has the attitude he displays.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

If he actually took some accountability for his play I might, but he gets no sympathy from me when he makes the money he does and has the attitude he displays.

Well he did exactly that - watch the press conference from last night.

 

[JPeeper]

Well he did exactly that - watch the press conference from last night.

K Never mind, maybe he feels bad.

The dude looks like his confidence is at a 0. Ride Rittich and give Smith a week or two off.

 

[FlamerForLife]

It's from the Reddit "source/insider" so take it as you will. Hopefully they realize know to give him time on the bench to get his confidence back instead of hoping he finds it in games.

 

[Fig]

TL;DR - Yank Smith, go back to old school play the hot hand (Rittich till he cools off). However, I wouldn't get hasty about looking for a replacement for Smith.


I actually am slightly optimistic that Smith can bounce back, but that involves yanking him. Riding pine should help with the clarity and have him possibly heal up if he is dealing with something. Let's sew some mesh into him. Sew some into Gilles and Parsons too. Less stupid memes wise, I think a lot of the issue is between the head. Smith is letting in squeakers which means he's mostly there, but carelessness is mucking things off. He's not completely off, IMO he's just slightly mis calibrated. That looks like a potential bounce back candidate to me. However, if the rumor is true that he's throwing the team under the bus, then it's good to make him ride pine anyways.

Acquiring a goalie right now may not be the best idea unless both the acquisition cost and cap work out. Why? Salary cap. Smith's cap hit is 5.67 AAV, but Coyotes are retaining 25%. I seem to recall that we had a discussion about the potential of bonuses eating next year's cap. If we are sitting on 4.25 AAV + 800K, we better be careful because we're barely spending on goal tending at the moment. Many teams are spending much more than the 5 Mil AAV on a single goalie than we are in a tandem and pushing that AAV up this season could potentially have domino implications on salary negotiations with RFAs as well as other random cap crunch and penalties.

A new goalie isn't necessarily going to work out or go hot then cold like crazy. I once pointed out Sigalet, that bandwagon has cooled. I (and I guess others) still am not totally sure if Sigalet is a true problem, but he's definitely a common denominator along side some of the major hot and cold spells for the goalies. Yet, many of the guys we had were flawed from the get go.
- Hiller was good first year, then horribad.
- Ramo was inconsistent, but as soon as he started looking decent, his knee was GG'd. (Ok under Marlarchuk, Good first year, destroyed second year)
- Elliott was decent but already had major complaints in St Louis, then collapsed major in the ploffs. Some of his attitude was also perhaps the reason we didn't keep him. (Cold, hot, cold, hot, cold)
- Johnson was similar too with his up and down seasons, so he was a bit of a traveling back up for a while. (Meh, hot, meh, rode pine due to injury?)
- I'm not sure about Ortio, but I bet attitude was an issue if he packed his bags and went home (though it wasn't good that he was in a goalie carousel).
- Smith was good last year, but we rode him too hard and he broke. I'm thinking he's still broken, but too damn proud to admit it. However, hasn't he's had the best stretch of all the goalies we've had since Kipper? (Good first year, bad second year)
- Rittich/Ortio - Thrown to the wolves and didn't survive last season. Rittich looking good this season, but I think management doesn't want to rush him. Unsure about Gilles.


I mean, a saving grace is that Peters is used to getting teams to play decent and overcome poor goal tending... Hot goalie or legit starter? Watch out!

 

[Fig]

It's from the Reddit "source/insider" so take it as you will. Hopefully they realize know to give him time on the bench to get his confidence back instead of hoping he finds it in games.

So... like we did with Elliott, we're giving him enough rope to hang himself?

We're also asking Smith to tie the noose himself?

 

[Calculon]

 

[Deen]

It's from the Reddit "source/insider" so take it as you will. Hopefully they realize know to give him time on the bench to get his confidence back instead of hoping he finds it in games.

If you read down that guy has a hissy fit about people questioning his legitimacy and said he isn't going to post there anymore

 

[JPeeper]

It's from the Reddit "source/insider" so take it as you will. Hopefully they realize know to give him time on the bench to get his confidence back instead of hoping he finds it in games.

Dammit. The guy has broken most Flames stuff so I'm inclined to believe him, but this sounds terrible if true.

We'll see if last nights goal changes things, literally one of the worst goals I have ever seen go in.