Quips and Quotes: Flames lose to Canadiens 3-2
By Ryan Pike
5 years agoThe Calgary Flames lost to the Montreal Canadiens by a 3-2 score on Thursday night. Here are selected reactions from players and coaches following the game.
Mike Smith owns the third goal
It’s no secret that Mike Smith hasn’t been great this season. The first goal he gave up to Tomas Tatar wasn’t amazing. But the third goal of the game, scored by Artturi Lehkonen, was a goal that can’t get past him in that situation.
While players are required under NHL media regulations to be available post-game for comment, credit where credit’s due: Smith absolutely owned the third goal after the game and didn’t try to blame anybody else or wriggle past it.
“Bad goal. Bad goal, bad timing,” said Smith. “I honestly have no idea how that went in. It obviously is a goal that can’t happen. I’m as mind-boggled as you guys are probably.”
Smith elaborated a bit in his media scrum on his mindset following his seventh loss of the season.
It’s obviously disappointing. When you feel like you’ve let your team down it’s probably the biggest frustration, disappointment that ever can happen in your career is when you’ve dropped the ball. Our team played such a great game tonight and deserved a lot better fate and when something happens like that and you know it’s on you, it’s obviously, it’s disappointing. It feels like you’ve let your whole team down.
The Flames defend Mike Smith
While Smith faced the music, it probably shouldn’t surprise you that the other Flames defended their netminder following the game.
“I’d say we all have bad days at work sometimes, so it’s pretty critical to be saying things like that to be honest with you,” said Hamonic, regarding a question regarding the quality of the third goal on Smith. “We battle as a team. We win or lose as a team, and it’s never on one player or one anything like that.”
In their scrums, Matthew Tkachuk noted how many times Smith has bailed the team out over his tenure, while Bill Peters criticized the team’s puck management – he noted a turnover in the neutral zone led to the Lehkonen scoring chance.
A quick statistical comparison
Since Smith returned from injury on Mar. 11, Smith has started 21 games. He’s 7-13-1 with a 3.46 goals against average, .878 save percentage and .889 even strength save percentage. Of the 58 goaltenders who have played 400+ minutes in that span, he’s 52nd in goals against average, 58th in save percentage and 58th in even strength save percentage.
For comparison’s sake, David Rittich is sixth in goals against average (2.25), 12th in save percentage (.922) and 10th in even strength save percentage (.935), albeit in 11 appearances.
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