Mike Smith shrugs off some iffy play
Netminder set for season start after poor pre-season finale, writes
Mike Smith knows there is more to give.
The Calgary Flames starting netminder knows the NHL pre-season had its interesting moments, but on Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Vancouver (Sportsnet) it will be very different compared to his four exhibition games.
“I’m not getting really too uptight about it,” Smith explained after Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the final clash of what has been a wild, whirlwind month for this group. “With these games, there’s a lot of other things that are going on that are out of your control. You have to feel good. Obviously, you want to do well. It didn’t happen, but there’s no reason to get your panties in a knot.”
He’s not wrong.
There are questions surrounding the 36-year-old this season: Can he stir up the same calibre of performance he did early on in 2017-18? Can he do it the entire season without suffering injuries? Can he shut up naysayers about his birthdate, his puckhandling, his longevity?
Similar to last year at this time, Smith’s preference was to get a handful of 60-minute games to feel the puck, regain his timing.
After facing some logistical nightmares heading to the O.R.G. Games in China, he drew in against the Boston Bruins in their second game at Beijing on Sept. 19, which was a 3-1 Flames loss that saw Smith make 16 saves.
Five nights and a 14-hour time difference later, he struggled in a 5-4 loss to the rookie-laden Winnipeg Jets on Sept. 24, allowing five goals on 26 shots.
Jet lag wasn’t an excuse, it was a fact for many of the players, including Smith, that game. (Afterwards, he reported that at one point during the first period, he started saying to himself: “Where am I right now? Am I in China?”)
A few days later, he looked more comfortable in a 23-save showing in San Jose on Thursday in a 4-3 win, but still made some mistakes (he had thought he’d covered a puck early on but Sharks rookie Antti Suomela poked it in for San Jose’s first goal).
And on Saturday in the preseason finale, his numbers were hardly glowing after he allowed four goals on 21 shots in net for the entirety of a 4-3 loss to Edmonton. Two of those goals were Oilers’ power-play markers. Connor McDavid, the reigning Art Ross Trophy winner, had a hand in both.
The Flames iced a relatively young roster and were missing veterans like TJ Brodie and James Neal, trying to evaluate the likes of Dillon Dube, Andrew Mangiapane, Juuso Valimaki and Dalton Prout.
Yes, occasionally jobs are won or lost at this time of the year and goalies aren’t exempt from a proper pre-season evaluation, either.
“It is what it is,” he said. “I’m not going to think too deeply into it. I’m just going to prepare for the start of the season when it really matters. We have a couple of good days of practice before the next game. The next game means something, and that’s when you need to play your best.”
The Flames placed forwards Anthony Peluso and Curtis Lazar on waivers, along with defenceman Brett Kulak. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll head to Stockton and join the Flames’ American Hockey League affiliate. Should they clear waivers, the Flames would have 30 days to dispatch them to Stockton … That being said, it could also mean that they’re making room to keep Dube, Mangiapane and young up-andcoming defencemen Rasmus Andersson, and Valimaki in the mix to start the season … Dube, who had four goals and two assists in seven pre-season games was looking forward to letting his head hit the pillow on Saturday, even with the anxiety of final training-camp cuts looming. “Right now, it’s kind of out of my hands,” Dube said. “If I do get a chance to make it, it’s still a tryout for a long time. We’ll see what happens here. I am going to have a good sleep Saturday and my mind won’t be running 100 miles an hour every second of the day. But if I go to Stockton or play here it’s going to be a tryout regardless, so I just have to keep going this way.”