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Calgary Flames Monday Roundtable: First week of the 2017-18 season

By Ramina Shlah

VANCOUVER, BC - OCTOBER 14: Michael Del Zotto #4 of the Vancouver Canucks looks on as Johnny Gaudreau #13 of the Calgary Flames is congratulated after scoring during their NHL game at Rogers Arena October 14, 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BC - OCTOBER 14: Michael Del Zotto #4 of the Vancouver Canucks looks on as Johnny Gaudreau #13 of the Calgary Flames is congratulated after scoring during their NHL game at Rogers Arena October 14, 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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CALGARY, AB – OCTOBER 13, 2017. (Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images)
CALGARY, AB – OCTOBER 13, 2017. (Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images) /

Question 2: Is Mike Smith‘s game against the Ottawa Senators a cause for concern at all?

Jonathan Boulanger

No way. He’s been all-world for this team and I think he will continue to be all season. Yes, the entire season.

Ian Gustafson

Mike Smith is the least of our worries right now, he had a bounce-back game against the Vancouver Canucks. He can only do so much for the team. When your defence allows 40+ shots a game, you’re bound to have a bad game such as the Ottawa matchup.

Tomas Oppolzer

No. It’s one game and every goalie has stinkers. I’m still not a huge fan of Mike Smith as the Calgary Flames goalie, but I think he should still be fine for now. His nice bounce-back effort vs. Vancouver will also help ease Flames fans minds.

Ben Prokopy

No. A look at Smith’s game logs over the last few years reveals a trend that explains why.  The game against the Sens was the 5th of the season. He posted a .773 SV% and was pulled after 47:58. In last year’s 5th game, Smith earned .765 SV% and was pulled after 26:49.  The year before that (2015-2016), it was during game 4 that he posted .824 and was yanked after 27:07.

See what I’m getting at here?  Although Smith tends to drop one around game 4/5 every year, he always returns to form shortly thereafter.

Dan Raicevich

Not at all. When you are constantly killing penalties and your team quits in front of you like they did Friday night, games like that happen. Smitty played fantastic on Saturday night (against Canucks) and has looked sharp through the first six outings.

Much sharper than that sieve in Edmonton I must say.

Ramina Shlah

Yeah, I think ‘no’ is the general consensus here. It was somewhat of a wakeup call to the Calgary Flames like, “hey, Mike Smith can’t be bailing you guys out of every game.” He bounced right back in the game against Vancouver and here and there, he’ll be having games like he had against Ottawa, but it’s definitely not a cause for concern. Like Ian said, Smith is the least of our concerns right now.

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