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Speculation: Player Discussion: Will Smith

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Unfortunately Smith's point streak ends tonight but he honestly could have had 2-3 points tonight and this was definitely one of his best games of the year. The kid is growing and developing in front of our eyes and it's such a treat to watch. I am glad he is getting time on PP1 now and man when he is feeling he sure is fun to watch!

Loved this play he made that set up Poturalski who almost scored first NHL goal, imagine if it went in! :eek3:

 
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I'm still convinced that Zetts backhand went in. Not sure if Smith would have gotten the secondary but he made that sequence.

Kid's looking better. Granted, they gave him all kinds of space today, but he made the most of it. Can't believe Macklin didn't bury that one on the doorstep.
 
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vortexy said:
Unfortunately Smith's point streak ends tonight but he honestly could have had 2-3 points tonight and this was definitely one of his best games of the year. The kid is growing and developing in front of our eyes and it's such a treat to watch. I am glad he is getting time on PP1 now and man when he is feeling he sure is fun to watch!

Loved this play he made that set up Poturalski who almost scored first NHL goal, imagine if it went in! :eek3:

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Almost got Poturalski his Bryan Lerg moment.
 
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I thought going into the season that Smith was the best PPQB on the Sharks and he surely vindicated that thought today. Granlund always wanted to play catch with Walman where Smith is looking to hit the cross ice seem pass which pairs so well with Celebrini on the opposite wing.

Also that first PP goal was a thing of beauty and all a result of Smith controlling the play. Even Drew said nice things about him.
 
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gaucholoco3 said:
I thought going into the season that Smith was the best PPQB on the Sharks and he surely vindicated that thought today. Granlund always wanted to play catch with Walman where Smith is looking to hit the cross ice seem pass which pairs so well with Celebrini on the opposite wing.

Also that first PP goal was a thing of beauty and all a result of Smith controlling the play. Even Drew said nice things about him.
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I think he wasn't calibrated to the speed of defenders early in the season. Lots of times, the one shot the PP 2 had to enter zone and set up was tanked by Smith losing the puck on entry or trying to force a pass. Now that he's a bit more calibrated he knows when he needs to move it and when he can slow down.. Looked a lot better yesterday.
 
coooldude said:
I think he wasn't calibrated to the speed of defenders early in the season. Lots of times, the one shot the PP 2 had to enter zone and set up was tanked by Smith losing the puck on entry or trying to force a pass. Now that he's a bit more calibrated he knows when he needs to move it and when he can slow down.. Looked a lot better yesterday.
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It is also a lot easier to bring the puck into the zone with Celebrini and Eklund than Kunin and Zetterlund on the second unit. That said I do agree that Smith himself was fighting the puck earlier in the year even when set up in the zone. It’s why it was so nice to see how well he controlled the entire power play and freed Celebrini to not have to play make from the half wall.
 
Lebanezer said:
Almost got Poturalski his Bryan Lerg moment.
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The Lergling Rush!

coooldude said:
I think he wasn't calibrated to the speed of defenders early in the season. Lots of times, the one shot the PP 2 had to enter zone and set up was tanked by Smith losing the puck on entry or trying to force a pass. Now that he's a bit more calibrated he knows when he needs to move it and when he can slow down.. Looked a lot better yesterday.
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Helps to have an elite zone enterer (entrant? entrist?) on the line eh?
 
karltonian said:
The Lergling Rush!


Helps to have an elite zone enterer (entrant? entrist?) on the line eh?
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Of course it helps Smith to play with Celebrini, but even when they had PP shifts earlier in the year (there were a few), the play would often die on Smith's stick on zone entry. He's definitely getting better calibrated, it's not just Celebrini.
 
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karltonian said:
Helps to have an elite zone enterer (entrant? entrist?) on the line eh?
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Entrant feels right, I'm a fan of "interlope(r)/(s)" it doesn't get enough love.

"Celebrini interlopes the offensive zone, dekes the defender and roofs it past the goalie."
1738854625792.png


Zone entries are so much more fun now!

I wonder what drove up the usage of the word? No Man's Sky maybe? :biglaugh:
 
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The interesting thing about Smith is that there's not much inbetween with him. He's either really bad on a shift or he really dominates. I'd even argue hes more effective in the offensive zone than Macklin at creating when he's on his A game.

Skating is subpar, but at least we can reasonably expect him to be middle 6'er w/ PP utility. Also, to all the people saying he should have been in the AHL. His growth from game 1 towards now is exactly why that would have been such a waste of time. And to think, how insulting it would have been to him and his camp, if they had sent him to Tech CU when the big team actually CHOOSES to ice Luke Kunin every night. You would have had yourself a Gauthier situation and no one sane would have been able to blame the kid.
 
Since not everybody reads the prospects-Board, i will post it here as well:

Have to toot Smittys horn once again (boy does that sound wrong):

After an up and down season and an especially rough stretch, something seems to have clicked since that game at TD Garden.

The Sharks are 1-8-3 in that stretch, being outscored 56 to 32 (- 24) in all situations, if someone has an easy way get the Even strength Numbers, i would appreciate that.

Despite that, Smith did not register a single game with a negative +/-.

His statline: 12 games, 3g, 8a, +8.

#nothittingrockbuthittinghisstride
 
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karltonian said:
He's gonna be lights out next season when both he and beanie have additional man strength and conditioning.
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It's interesting, coming out of the break I saw Smith in that Calgary game and was like, "Huh. Is he looking bigger or did I just forget and project?"

Whatever it is--I doubt he got that jacked over just two weeks--I think he's clearly playing with confidence and strength from that confidence. Obviously he's going to hit bumps in the road going forward and that confidence will wane, but seriously, the guy we're seeing now versus the guy we saw at the start of the season is like a man compared to a teenager. And seeing what the man version of Smith can do, it's pretty damn exciting.
 
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