Calgary Flames three stars of the week: November 20-26

DALLAS, TX - NOVEMBER 24: Sean Monahan #23 and the Calgary Flames celebrate a goal against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center on November 24, 2017 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX - NOVEMBER 24: Sean Monahan #23 and the Calgary Flames celebrate a goal against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center on November 24, 2017 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)
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Second Star

COLUMBUS, OH – NOVEMBER 22: Goaltender Mike Smith
COLUMBUS, OH – NOVEMBER 22: Goaltender Mike Smith

Mike Smith

Since the start of the season, Mike Smith has proven to be the goaltender that Brad Treliving hoped he would be. He’s been easily one of the Calgary Flames best players since the start of the season and has been there to back the team up when they needed it.

Smith went 1-1-1 this week which isn’t that great, but he’s made some big saves. In the one where he had the win vs the Washington Capitals, he stopped 29 of 30 shots against a strong Caps team who have some incredible shooters on their team. Players like Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, and TJ Oshie were all no match for Mike Smith. Which earned him the first star of the night.

In his OT loss, he stopped every shot that came his way in regulation. It was a shot in OT which led to the Calgary Flames’ first OT loss of the season. But that goal was in no way his fault. TJ Brodie lost the puck right beside Smith’s net and the Blue Jacks found the puck and got it over Smith’s shoulder. There wasn’t a whole lot he could have done in that situation and other than that goal, he stopped all other 40 shots that came his way to earn the second star of the game that night.

Related Story: Flames lose first game in OT vs. Blue Jackets

In the loss to the Dallas Stars, he may have let in five goals on 41 shots, but that wasn’t the storyline of the game. The story was about the lack of performance from the Flames blueline that night. They were basically non-existent and failed to clear the zone on multiple occasions. At some points, they’d spend minutes in their own zone failing to clear. It’s hard to stop the puck when your defence isn’t backing you up. He made some big saves throughout the game when it looked like the Flames may still walk away with a win and stopped all shots that came his way during a 5on3 powerplay for the Stars in the third period.

He had a good week and was the reason the Flames even got a point in the game vs. the Blue Jackets. For this, he gets the second star of the week.