We need to talk about Brendan Smith (Update: I jinxed him hard)

[obey86]

Because smith took a dumb icing

Your not gonna win every single face off

You're not going to avoid an icing every single time either. Every player on the team has taken dumb icings.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

You're not going to avoid an icing every single time either. Every player on the team has taken dumb icings.

But right at the start of the game?

 

[TheMule93]

But right at the start of the game?

Does it really matter when?

 

[obey86]

IIRC, XO had two dumb icings last game and everyone thinks he played awesome (personally I think he's sucked since being called up but everyone seems to disagree).

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

Because smith took a dumb icing

Your not gonna win every single face off

and the wingers who failed to do their job or the goalie who chose not to stop the puck?

blaming a guy for causing a bad faceoff that lead to a goal seems like its based solely on ones dislike for him

come on

 

[Classicnamesup]

Currently on vacation so not watching hockey but he was great before I left. Mistakes here and there but overall he was having some great games

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Smith has been pretty good for the last two months. Wish he was doing more with his recent PP time, they do generally create chances with him out there which is a massive improvement over Kindl who is completely hit or miss in that regard.

He took too long, his detractors will always be massive. I hope he can keep up his good play for the rest of the year. He has been very good the last two post-seasons too which is positive. He looks a lot better in Blashill's system. I will be curious what they do when Big E and Kronner are back.

 

[Fugu]

Smith has been pretty good for the last two months. Wish he was doing more with his recent PP time, they do generally create chances with him out there which is a massive improvement over Kindl who is completely hit or miss in that regard.

He took too long, his detractors will always be massive. I hope he can keep up his good play for the rest of the year. He has been very good the last two post-seasons too which is positive. He looks a lot better in Blashill's system. I will be curious what they do when Big E and Kronner are back.

I still think he lost all confidence under Babcock.

 

[SoupGuru]

I'm the biggest Smith detractor there is and I will admit he's been playing well lately. He has been making good decisions with the puck on his stick, for the most part. I'm honestly surprised he doesn't have twice as many points as he does.

At the same time, he still has no instinct to play defense. His positioning is bad, he chooses to pressure at bad times, and over-rates his ability to eat pucks on the boards. I'm honestly surprised we're not burned more often with him on the ice.

So it's a wash. He's not getting it done offensively when it seems like he should be and we're not getting scored on when he's out there like we should.

 

[RabidBadger]

I still think he lost all confidence under Babcock.

No doubt. He started out as a disaster at Wisconsin but showed improvement each year under Mike Eaves (he was a Hobey Baker nominee the same year as Nyquist). He continued to improve at GR then ran in to the stone wall of Babs.

This year is a salvage project and it looks encouraging so far.