One bad pass in two games..otherwise his puck distribution has been near perfect and by far the best on Canada's blueline. Smith has his downfalls that may catch him at the next level like speed and lack of shot but at this level he is very effective.
One bad pass in two games?... He had 3 alone in the first 27 minutes last night.
Terrible coaching startegy, beat the 17 year old down to no confidence. If an injury happens he will have to use him. Kinda unbelievable if you think about it. However its not suprising at all given who the coach is.
You can already tell he was struggling with his confidence. I have seen him trip over his own two feet more than once. He was instrumental on the cycle on the 2 to 1 goal. Why not build on that instead of throwing him under the bus to the media. Beating him down any further makes no sense. You can do it in a much different way behind closed doors. Wins pile up sure when youre on home ice with a stacked roster. They play alot of hockey in a short period of time. Running with 11 forwards will tire this team out he will likely need him at some point.
So crushing the kids confidence to the media and potentially ruining the player for the rest of tournament is the best way to achieve the ultimate goal? Doesnt seem like it to me, sounds like a guy that wants to hear him self speak. Potentially has an underlying issue with skilled players because he was a grinder? Or maybe doesnt care for francophones? I mean why did it take so long for Comtois to be named captain? The entire situation screams ego to me.
Did you gloss over the numbers I posted, that's why Smith keeps getting put out. He is one of the best in the tourney in zone exits. When he is on the ice the puck is moved through him. When that happens you will make a few errant passes that a phillips doesnt make. Hughes has some ugly turnovers in this tourney too.
In my opinion those numbers get cancelled out by the turnovers he makes that are dreadful. When you said you only saw one then came back with a bunch of advanced stats means you clearly want to portray the player a certain way. He had 3 really bad ones. I couldnt believe how irresponsible he was with the puck and i looked at the time and it was 11:54 of the 2nd period. I said to my buddy wow you see that, thats his third one and the game isnt even half over. He said yup thats brutal.
I also didn't see all these horrible turnovers you keep mentioning. He made some really risky passes along the offensive blue line that he needs to clean up, and one turnover that lead to a scoring chance against. When you move the puck as much as he was, there are going to be some turnovers. The numbers are also not "cancelled out" by turnovers, it's not even close. His successful transitions far outweigh failed ones.
Neither have I.
please don't remind me of Spott, it's taken years of intense Tibetan meditation techniques to rid me of my ptsd concerning the guy.
