In the 2011-12 season, goalie Smith became an NHL star
Smith’s magical playoff run in Arizona in 2011-12 helped pave way for No. 1 status
What Keith Yandle remembers most were the odds. And the intravenous fluids. Both, combined with Mike Smith's out-of-this-world goaltending, added up to the then-Phoenix Coyotes' first NHL playoff series victory over the Chicago Blackhawks and spurred them to the franchise's best NHL post-season performance, which also includes its time as the Jets in Winnipeg.
“No one had us favoured to beat them or even gave us a chance,” Yandle, a former Coyotes defenceman, said the other day, referring to the 2011-12 playoff run. “And I just remember Smitty stealing games for us. I think the shot totals were 50 or close to 60 saves a night. And he's not a goalie that's just standing in his net. He's active and getting out of his net all the time to play the puck. I remember him getting IVs after every game because he was getting so many shots on net.”
It was his first deep playoff run in the NHL and certainly his first season playing a significant starting role in the NHL.
Before that, he'd toiled in the minors, slugging it out for parts of four seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning organization, never really gaining notoriety or any type of traction at the big-league level.
After a busy regular season during which he started 67 games to help guide the Coyotes to the promised land and averaging 40 shots per night during the first round against the Blackhawks in that exciting spring of 2012, Smith needed all the help he could get.
So there he'd sit with a tube and a bag of IV fluid to avoid dehydration.
“Oh, I remember that,” said Smith, 35, relaxing in his new home dressing room with the Calgary Flames.
“I don't think it's that odd. It probably doesn't get publicized very much (that players get IVs). But it was a busy time of the season. I hadn't really played that much hockey in my career in the NHL. In the playoffs, everything is elevated and you're losing a lot of weight in games.”
The thing is, they were never supposed to be there. They haven't been back there since.
And the Coyotes, coming into the Scotiabank Saddledome to face Smith and the Flames Thursday (7 p.m., Sportsnet 360/Sportsnet 960 The Fan), have a long way to go to returning — especially given their seismic shift this 2017-18 season.
But back then, with Smith as their lifeline, they clung to every minute against the Hawks and won. The story goes: Game 1 — a 3-2 overtime win in Arizona. Outshot 45-34.
Game 2 — a 4-3 overtime loss in Arizona. Outshot 50-33.
Game 3 — a 3-2 overtime win in Chicago. Outshot 37-34.
Game 4 — a 3-2 overtime win in Chicago. Outshot 32-19.
Game 5 — a 2-1 overtime loss in Arizona. Outshot 38-19. Then, there was Game 6. No surprise the Blackhawks outshot the Coyotes again, but this time the shot clock read 28-8 after two periods, while the Coyotes were up 1-0 on an Oliver Ekman-Larsson goal.
“I don't think I've ever seen a better goaltending performance,” said Flames general manager Brad Treliving, then part of the Coyotes organization. “He was quite dialed in.” Smith made 39 saves as the Coyotes posted a 4-0 win to clinch the series.
“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh. We're going to win this game,'” recalled Shane Doan, the longtime face of the franchise. “It was in Chicago and they were going crazy. It was so disheartening for them because they were outplaying us. But we had Smitty. He did that to Chicago for like six games straight. “And it was incredible.” In reality, Smith's consistency began in the final stretch of the 2011-12 regular season campaign, particularly in February when the Coyotes went 11-0-1. In four of those games — all wins for Smith — the team scored once or twice in each contest.
“He stood on his head all year,” said Ekman-Larsson, who was into his second year as a professional at the time. “He is an unbelievable goalie and he's so easy to play with as a defenceman. It's so hard when you have one guy chasing you down the corner and you need to be aware of where your teammates are.
“He made it so much easier for me and for our group of defencemen.”
Apparently he was just getting started.
In the post-season, after the club clinched its first Pacific Division title, he finished with a 1.99 goalsagainst average and a .944 save percentage through the Blackhawks series, another defensive five-game duel with the Nashville Predators and all the way to the Western Conference final, which they lost in five games to the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Los Angeles Kings.
That playoff run, he faced 602 shots in 16 games. For perspective, through 21 games with the Flames this season, he's faced 685 shots.
Smith finished fourth in Vezina Trophy voting that year.
To the Coyotes, he was invaluable all season.
“I've never seen a goaltending performance like he gave,” Doan said. “Ever. And I know people will point to all kinds of amazing things, but for me personally, I've never been an eyewitness to a display of goaltending like that.”
In Game 2 of the Blackhawks series, Andrew Shaw clipped Smith in the head as he went to play the puck behind the Coyotes' net. After being attended to by medical staff and giving the entire arena in Glendale, Ariz., a scare in the process, he played out the remainder of the game.
“I'm like, ‘OK, is he going to be OK? What's the deal? Am I going to have to play?'” said Jason LaBarbera, Smith's backup at the time who now works down the hall as a goalie coach with the WHL's Calgary Hitmen. “I remember I was on the ice stretching with my gear thinking, ‘OK, I'm going into this game and maybe even into this series.' Even the next day, we weren't sure if he was able to play Game 3.”
Smith was fired up about the play that saw Shaw suspended for three games and it seemed to fuel his desire to finish off the Blackhawks.
“If you know Mike at all, you know he's going to get a little pissy about certain things,” LaBarbera said with a chuckle. “He's certainly an emotional guy — a competitor, for sure. To get hit like that … he's very fiery, for sure.”
Since that remarkable run, Smith has established himself as one of the top netminders in the NHL and his body of work is why the Kingston, Ont., native ended up with the Flames in the offseason. Part of that package is his competitiveness.
Anyone who has played with the guy knows that spark, channelled in the right way, can be a catalyst for a team. It also makes for an accountable teammate. And a heckuva friend. “For the most part, probably one of us would go too far and the other one would call the other into check," Doan said with a chuckle. “But because you trust the other person and their opinion so much, they can say that to you. I could trust Smitty and he could be honest with me at times when I needed him to be honest with me ... ”
The passion, the ability to steal games, it's all part of what made Smith so dominant in 2011-12.
On top of it all, he's still maintaining his reputation for being a “genetic freak” of an athlete at 35 years old.
“For a goalie, too. He's all ripped up,” Yandle said. “He almost looks like a swimmer — big, long arms. He's probably the most athletic goalie I've ever played with. He's just a really good athlete.”