New Jersey Devils: Coyotes Captions

“Now I’ve seen it all — getting screened by an opposing player’s leg in my face!” — Mike Smith, Arizona Coyotes Goalie

Mike Smith has had a really tough season this year — and yet there have been periods of progress. I listen to the games on the radio, and I hear plenty of statements like: “There really wasn’t anything Smitty could have done about that goal.” What that means to me is, our young defense is doing some on the job training.

Another thing I’ve just started to notice about Smith’s style of play — he rarely comes out of the blue paint to break down the angle a shooter may have, relying on his reactions to be quick enough to make the save.

If you think about it, perhaps Smitty picked that up from Sean Burke’s goaltending style and teaching. In any case, Smitty — who has historically posted some pretty terrific Februarys during his career — is not performing to those standards thus far, and February is almost over.

He was a respectable 2-2-1 after five games this month, but has since lost six consecutive starts. This is a true dilemma for GM Don Maloney — because as he stated, “we are married to Mike Smith.” They may be committed to him, but if he doesn’t start to pick up his play, a divorce is not out of the question. Look at what the Yotes did when they unloaded Mike Ribeiro. The management team admitted signing Ribeiro was a mistake — can they afford two such blunders? Smith is not getting any younger (32), and with four years remaining on his contract, many critics (myself included) feel the contract was undeserved, due to only one over the top season to show that worth.

Next: Connor Murphy, and the young Arizona Coyotes defense