wadesworld
Registered User
I finally saw/see what you mean re: Smith. Lottsa empty rush there.
Smith is what he is. A player who works his tail off. On the negative side, when he gets to the puck, his less-than-elite skills may lead to a turnover, or more often than not, a frustrating lack of finish. His passes are too hard and he has a frustrating propensity to hit the goalie's chest. On the positive side, he gets to pucks nobody can and scores goals on pure effort alone.
Despite what his haters say, none of his supporters think he's the second coming of Gretzky. We think he is what he is. A player that works hard and makes the best of the skills he has. While his haters think he's trash and should not even be in the NHL, his supporters understand that 2nd-line 20+ goal scorers are extremely valuable and apparently the Preds agree, signing him long-term.
He is no Filip Forsberg or James Neal and never will be. To expect the same level of skill is simply unfair. That said, he's been in the top 3 of our scoring for the past two years, so he's certainly deserving of recognition for what he does accomplish.