Welcome wagon rolls out for Smith
Calgary Flames netminding newbie Mike Smith is settling into a southwest community and there have already been several knocks on the door.
Nobody has asked to borrow a cup of sugar.
Only one has hinted at a ticket request.
The folks on Smith’s street and every other avenue, lane or culde-sac in Calgary and surrounding area only want saves and wins. Pretty, pretty please. “Everybody has been so welcoming so far,” Smith said after Thursday’s medicals and fitness tests at WinSport, the first item on the training camp itinerary for the 2017-18 Flames. “Just moving in, we’ve been here two weeks and have had numerous neighbours stop over at the house and welcome us to the community and tell us just how excited they are to have us here. I think that makes the transition fairly easy.”
In this city, it’s easy to be a puckstopper in September. It’s October, April and every month in between that bring the challenge.
Just ask Brian Elliott. The welcome wagon rolled out for Elliott last fall. After allowing a few stinkers in a first-round sweep at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks, some of his own neighbours might have offered to help him pack up his stuff.
This isn’t Philadelphia, long known as the NHL’s goalie graveyard and now Elliott’s place of employ, but Calgary has been mighty tough on twine-minders since Miikka Kiprusoff called it a career.
“I think there is pressure anywhere you play being a goaltender,” Smith reasoned. “But that’s why I’ve played the position for as long as I have. I enjoy that pressure. Sometimes you can beat yourself up about it, but I think I’m going to embrace it and face that challenge head on.”
On Friday, for the first time, Smith will be facing shots as one of the home-siders at the Saddledome. The Flames will get back to business with three days of practice before Monday’s split-squad exhibitions against the Edmonton Oilers.
This is a change of scenery for the 35-year-old Smith, who originally hails from Kingston, Ont., but has earned his big-league paycheques in the sunny climes of Dallas, Tampa and Glendale, Ariz.
For the past six campaigns, he was the go-to goalie for the Coyotes. That first winter in Arizona, he backstopped the Desert Dogs to the Western Conference final.
In five seasons since? Not a sniff of playoff action.
Smith was traded to Calgary in June and enters training camp as the sure-thing starter with Eddie Lack on board as his backup.
“I think there is expectation here to do well. And that, as an older player, is all you can ask for,” Smith said. “You want to be on a winning team, a winning franchise and it’s exciting to be a part of a Canadian team that is expected to do well. There is pressure that goes along with that, but I think that pressure is why you play the game and why you want to be in big games and on a winning team, so I’m really pumped about it.”