Did The Calgary Flames Make The Right Choice With Mike Smith?

Many Calgary Flames fans were surprised to see Mike Smith named as their team’s starter for Game 1. Before we Monday Morning Quarterback and say it was the right decision, what convinced head coach Bill Peters that Smith was good to go?

The Calgary Flames have been an interesting team over the past few seasons due to their inconsistent nature. They’ll make the playoffs one year and then fall out of contention the next. Even though they missed out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, they return this year as the Western Conference’s top seed.

When Calgary opened up their first-round series against the Colorado Avalanche, they raised a few questions with their goaltending choice. Flames head coach Bill Peters decided to go with veteran goaltender Mike Smith as their Game 1 starter over the younger David Rittich, whose play had surpassed Smith and carried Calgary for most of the season. Did the Flames make the right decision?

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First let’s take a look at their recent goaltending history, as for the Flames goaltending always seems to be equal parts a weakness and a question mark. After Mikka Kiprusoff’s career began to be coming to a close, Calgary was always on the search for their next “number one”.

Former Anaheim Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller and current Philadelphia Flyers goalie Brian Elliott all made stops on the goaltending carousel before a trade sent Smith over from the Arizona Coyotes as the Flames next answer in net.

Smith has been quietly underrated his entire career, playing on a mostly unsuccessful and media attention starved Coyotes team. It’s easy to forget that he was the second-best Western Conference goalie in the 2012 playoffs, behind Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings of course.

The only reason the Coyotes made it any further than the first round that season was because of Smith’s goaltending heroics. Maybe Peters chose him over Rittich because he has more playoff experience?

Still, that was still six years ago, and a lot can change in that time span. The main rule of choosing your goaltender is you always ride the hot hand and put everything else aside. Even though then rookie phenom Andrew Hammond fizzled out during Ottawa’s short stint in the 2015 NHL playoffs, no one can fault then head coach Dave Cameron for choosing the Hamburgler after going 20–1–2 in the regular season.

Over their last 5 regular season games played, Rittich and Smith both post a 3-2 record, but Rittich has been the much better of the two. In Smith’s last five starts, he only posted two games with a save percentage above 0.900, with both losses and a win having him under that amount. In all five of Rittich’s last five starts, including his losses, Rittich’s lowest save percentage was .903 in a loss to Anaheim.

Yes, Rittich is the younger and least experienced of the two, but he was obviously the better goaltender. Inexperience didn’t stop the St. Louis Blues from playing Jordan Binnington in their Game 1 victory.

Even though the Avalanche have a lot of offensive weapons, they still come off a lowly threat to the West’s top seeded team, so it should have been an easy win for Rittich. No amount of playoff experience and expertise Smith possesses could have convinced most otherwise.

At least that’s what we thought until Smith backstopped the Flames to a 4-0 game one win on Thursday night. No matter how well he continues to play, it’s hard to imagine that Rittich won’t get his fair share of playoff action. He’s just going to have to wait for it.

Maybe Smith’s reinventing himself as a playoff goaltender. Just like the New York Yankees had Reggie Jackson as “Mr. October”, maybe the flames will a “Mr. April/May” in Smith. It doesn’t sound as catchy though.