It's critical for Gilies and Ritich stepping up this year.
Don't stop believing. Hold onto that feeling.Sam Bennett Breaking Out as the #1C he is. Minute that happens, no one in the West can hang with us.
I thought he already was ........Sam Bennett Breaking Out as the #1C he is. Minute that happens, no one in the West can hang with us.
Doesn't matter if Bennett turns into Getzlaf overnight. Without Smith's groin holding, this team isn't going anywhere. Unless one of Gillies/Rittich do a complete 180 from last season. Still would say a vet backup is our largest need. Even if others don't think it is and want to roll with our kids, there is no denying the risk built into our goaltending situation.
As intolerable as your repeated "I told you so"s will become when that happens, I sure hope you're right.Sam Bennett Breaking Out as the #1C he is. Minute that happens, no one in the West can hang with us.
I doubt Treliving is satisfied with our current goaltending situation.
Unfortunately he needs another team to help us out - and we're starting to run low on tradeable assets. (well at least ones we want to part with)
I find it wasteful to have made all these awesome off-season moves, only to have the same problem in net. If we were expected to be a bottom feeder, great, throw two young goalies into the spotlight. we cannot afford to lose games this season because Tre has to waffle over whether or not he should sign a vet backup 2 weeks after Smith is finally placed on IR and we've lost 7 in a row. This roster looks like a deep playoff team, the only issue is the uncertainty in net. The rest after that is up to the execution of the coaches and players, cause on paper, Tre has insured we are set...sans a reliable Smith replacement.
I am confident in all three goalies. We didn't miss the playoffs last year because of goaltending. We missed because of a lack of scoring due to a braindead coach and too many penalties taken trying to play a chippy style. Our goalies - especially Rittich and Smith, individually won us more games than they lost us last year. The rest came down to the skaters. Even Gillies was a conpetent #3
The only concern about goalies is if our starting goalie gets injured. Almost every team in the league would be concerned about that, though. There's a lot less uncertainty in net in Calgary than other places in the league.
If we decide to stack down the middle, Bennett-Lindholm could be a really promising pair. The only problem is that Peters is very anal about having a RHS on each line for faceoff purposes.Bennett is gonna look great on someones wing this year.
The only way Gillies was a competent #3 was when he was playing in Stockton. He had awful #s in Calgary. I like Gillies as a goalie, but he's not close to being given meaningful minutes in the NHL yet. Rittich needs to grow as a backup, but neither should be trusted with being a starter this year if (when) Smith goes down.I am confident in all three goalies. We didn't miss the playoffs last year because of goaltending. We missed because of a lack of scoring due to a braindead coach and too many penalties taken trying to play a chippy style. Our goalies - especially Rittich and Smith, individually won us more games than they lost us last year. The rest came down to the skaters. Even Gillies was a conpetent #3
People keep parroting this, but the guy has still played 55+ games in 4 of the last 5 seasons. Maybe the injury issues have more to do with overuse than being injury prone. Rittich was good as a backup last year, he never struggled until he was asked to start every game. To me, it would make more sense to give Smith regular rest than worry about his durability.Well yes, I guess. But Smith is a massive injury risk.