Calgary Flames: It’s only preseason, but we’re concerned
By Ramina Shlah
Everyone always talks about how preseason doesn’t completely matter. And they have a point. But we’re still concerned about the Calgary Flames.
Every year, the Calgary Flames goaltending seems to be one of the biggest stories. The Flames have not had a consistent goaltender since Miikka Kiprusoff, basically. They had the whole Jonas Hiller and Karri Ramo situation. And last year when they finally got what seemed to be a great, solid goaltender with Brian Elliott, that somewhat turned into a bust.
Elliott seemed to be one of the more underrated goalies in the league. He was second in save-percentage in the last five years – just after Cory Schneider. The Flames finally got the one thing they were lacking – consistency. And after Elliott had a successful preseason, Flames fans were excited and hopeful. But it was just the preseason.
He struggled a lot early on and the Flames mainly depended on Chad Johnson in November. But it ended up working out, Elliott got much better throughout the season and even helped the Flames reach a ten-game win streak in February and March. But then the playoffs came, and he wasn’t that same ten-game-win-streak Elliott. The Flames parted ways with him in the off-season.
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So the Flames goaltending woes struck them again and GM Brad Treliving decided to turn to an older, more experienced player – Mike Smith. The problem with Mike Smith is that he is 35 years old and isn’t exactly that cheap ($4.25 million AAV for the next two years). And while he isn’t necessarily bad, he’s certainly inconsistent.
But there was still hope. Even with a goaltender like Smith, the Flames were still ready for Cup contention. They re-signed some important free agents and they solidified their blue-line. And one of our writers here on Flame for Thought, Tomas, dug a little deeper into Smith and found that there may not be too much to worry about after all.
No need to worry?
Tomas found that Smith’s even-strength SV% tells a much better story than his overall SV%. Over the last two seasons, Smiths’ SV% is 22nd in the league (min. 80 GP). Here’s what Tomas found:
"Over that same time frame Smith’s even-strength .927 ranks 8th in the NHL (Stats from NHL.com). This is behind only James Reimer, Braden Holtby, Craig Anderson, Corey Crawford, Sergei Bobrovsky, Devan Dubnyk, and Jonathan Quick.His 2nd-to-last ranking in short-handed save percentage is what drags his numbers down. It does make sense that he’d let in an avalanche of goals on the penalty kill when you look at the personnel in front of him. Is it so hard to believe he can be better behind what is arguably the best top 4 defense in the Pacific division?"
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While there was hope earlier this off-season, anxiety is starting to rise among Calgary Flames fans.
Same old problem
Look, I KNOW that preseason isn’t a tell-tale of what’s to come during the regular season. But you can’t help but be worried. So much so that NHL.com also noticed the worrisome goaltending.
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Via NHL.com:
"The Calgary Flames will start with two new goalies for the second consecutive season. Mike Smith was acquired in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes on June 17, and the Flames traded for Eddie Lack from the Carolina Hurricanes on June 29.The results have not been encouraging. Lack had an .860 save percentage, allowing eight goals on 57 shots. Rookie Jon Gillies had an .844 save percentage (five goals on 32 shots), and Smith had an .800 save percentage (six goals on 30 shots). Calgary ranked last with an .837 save percentage before games played Wednesday."
On Thursday night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks, while Mike Smith wasn’t that bad (stopped 27 of 30 shots), he wasn’t spectacular by any means. And while we can’t completely fault Smith for the goals allowed, he still didn’t look his sharpest.
The three Flames goalies during exhibition games are all in the bottom-eight in SV%. After Thursday’s game, Mike Smith is now at 0.850.
Again, I know that preseason doesn’t tell the full story. However, you can’t help but be concerned. But there may be a positive here: Mike Smith will start in tonight’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, so he had one more chance before the regular season begins.
Let’s just hope nothing like this happens:
And like I mentioned earlier, Brian Elliott was incredible last year during preseason, but then was a completely different player when the regular season started. So let’s hope that may be the opposite with Smith this year.
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And I know that the Flames haven’t had a great run this exhibition, but remember: the Colorado Avalanche won every preseason game last year.