Even in the midst of his worst NHL season, Mike Smith can empathize with the guy in enemy colours 200 feet away.
When Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier allowed a 114-foot, shorthanded, record-setting s(t)inker off the long stick of Arizona Coyotes defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson Thursday night at Air Canada Centre, Smith’s sympathy outweighed his joy.
“You feel more sorry for the guy than you do happy,” Smith said Thursday, after snapping his six-game losing streak. “Every goalie has been there at some point in their lives. It’s not the best feeling in the world. I feel bad for him.”
Smith, 32, still has a dubious goal from his past that haunts him to this day — and it’s not this fluke from 2013:
“I was in junior and it was from the same spot (as the Ekman-Larsson goal). Mine bounced, whereas that one changed direction in the air. It was a knuckle puck,” Smith says. “I’ll never forget it. It’s one of those things that you’d like to forget quickly, but you don’t.”
Forgetting has become priority No. 1 for Smith, whose six-game losing streak came on the heels of a five-game skid, which was one victory removed from a seven-game pile of losses.
Never in his 13-year career as a professional has Smith’s save percentage (.890) been this low, his goals-against average (3.41) this high. And to think, one year ago he was making flight arrangements to Sochi, from where he’d return with an Olympic gold medal.
“It’s frustrating for the whole organization and myself,” says Smith, one of just two Coyotes (Ekman-Larsson the other) signed past 2016-17. “But I’m done dwelling on it. It is what it is.”
As the Coyotes commit to a “reset,” Smith must be better. And since Arizona traded a resurgent Devan Dubnyk to Minnesota, Mike’s unknown backup Mikes (Lee and McKenna) haven’t had a chance to doff the ball cap.
It’s Smith’s crease. It’s on him to get back into form.
“It’s nice to get in the rhythm and know you’re going to be playing every night,” he says of life after Dubnyk. “It’s easier to go out there and just play.”
While skeptics doubt Smith will ever regain the consistency of 2011-12, when he followed his greatest regular season (.930 save percentage) with an even greater playoff performance (.944, three shutouts, a conference final appearance), his captain has faith in him.
“He’s continuing to do the work and continuing to do the things in the past that made him so successful,” Shane Doan says. “I’m sure he’ll come out of it and be the goalie that we need him to be.”
Maybe a dose of bad luck at the other end can fire a small confidence boost 200 feet away. After all, it’s better to feel sorry for the other guy than yourself.
“It’s about time we got a bounce,” Smith says. “We’ll take it.”
One Timers
- A native of Kingston, Ont., Smith, like Bernier, grew up a Habs fan. A reporter asked if he’d ever considered being a Maple Leaf: “Have I thought about it? Not for very long.”
- Smith, the most recent goalie to score a goal, on Martin Brodeur, who scored three: “The way he read the play, the way he read how the puck was coming off the (puck handler’s) stick was incredible. Obviously sad to see him go. He was a guy I looked up to growing up. (His longevity) is something that will probably never be done again. It says so much about him as a person and a professional. Marty was a guy who never made a mistake with (the puck). That’s something I learned a lot from watching him – the way he played the puck. You never saw video of Marty making too many puck-handling mistakes.”
- Smith on the Marty who most influenced his puck-handling: “Drafted by Dallas, I think it was more Turco.”