NEW STYLE A HIT
Once relegated to Hartford, Smith's career revived with defensive change
It’s almost as if Brendan Smith were waiting and wanting to hear this question.
“Do you think this system fits your game better than last year?” he was asked, referring to the lost season he spent mostly in the minors.
“For sure I think it does,” the smiling Rangers defenseman told The Post after Friday’s practice in Tarrytown. “My biggest thing is I want to make good outlet passes; I want to be hard-nosed, strong in front of the net; I want to compete for pucks. I think that’s what I’ve done in the past, and to me, that’s winning hockey. When we get back to it, it works out.”
This season for the Blueshirts under first-year head coach David Quinn is mostly about the future of the organization, and how that future is being plotted. It is as much about Quinn’s direct predecessor, Alain Vigneault, as it is about John Tortorella or Tom Renney — or Emile Francis, for that matter.
But it is impossible to think about Smith’s time as a Ranger without thinking about how things went awry in Vigneault’s final year, which also happened to be the first year of Smith’s shiny new four-year, $17.4 million deal that carries an annual salary-cap hit of $4.35 million. Smith came into that training camp not quite the same player he was the previous spring, when general manager Jeff Gorton had traded secondand third-round picks to the Red Wings for the pending free agent, who then he excelled during the playoffs before the Rangers’ secondround flameout against the Senators.
Then, it seemed as if he were one of the only defensemen on the team who played with a snarl and defended the front of the net with tenacity, two things that were de-emphasized in Vigneault’s system. But the next year, in his first full season under Vigneault, Smith (along with the rest of the team) seemed to drop those attributes before he cleared waivers on Feb. 9 and was assigned to play out the rest of the year with AHL Hartford.
“I try not to think about last year, as I’ve told you guys,” the 29-yearold Smith said. “I use it as motivation, but I don’t dwell on it. I just keep trying to get better every day. This is where I wanted to be, playing top pair, top minutes. So I’m happy with that.”
Through the first seven games of this season, with Quinn’s squad showing fight in a 2-4-1 getaway, Smith has been the most consistently good performer on what has been a rotating cast of players on the back end. He has especially excelled for the past three games while playing his off-side right with another veteran, Marc Staal.
“I think he’s really kept it simple,”
said Quinn, whose team next plays Sunday night at the Garden against the Flames. “He’s a guy that has good skills, he’s not trying to do too much, he’s defended hard. He’s in great shape, so he’s able to play at a pace. His skating has always been elite. He’s in a whole different mindset.”
Asked exactly what that change in mindset is, and Quinn was pretty clear.
“I just think he just feels good about himself,” the coach said. “One of the things when we talked this summer, we both wanted to erase what happened last year. We were picking up where he left off the previous year against [Ottawa] in the playoffs when he was so good. Pick up where he put himself in a position for us to sign him long term and trade for him and be a good player in this league.
“We’re not asking guys to do something they haven’t done before. I think he’s back to being the effective, good defenseman that he’s been for a while.”
Smith has also embraced a leadership role with this younger team, often pulling players aside in practice or games to point out different things they should be doing. It’s all part of the reclamation project that seemingly has gotten off to as good a start as could have been imagined.
“I’ve been happy with the way it’s going, just trying to get back to my style of hockey,” Smith said. “I think the satisfaction is when we win.”