Never change
I doubt anybody here is a "Smith pumper" you just seem to have an irrational dislike for the guy
ir·ra·tion·al [ih-rash-uh-nl] Show IPA
adjective
1.
without the faculty of reason; deprived of reason.
2.
without or deprived of normal mental clarity or sound judgment.
3.
not in accordance with reason; utterly illogical: irrational arguments.
4.
not endowed with the faculty of reason: irrational animals.
Perhaos 2 fits me but the other three not so much. As for the dislike yes and it seems to be growning. Funny how you are the lone poster to come to Smiths defense. Why is that? Could be because the guys performance does deserve criticism.
As most here despise Trotz behind the bench this is my feeling about this guy playing where he is. Just as with players in the past excuses are made to explain there short comings, and this guy has plenty. I further deplore the idea that he is seen as a major part of this team going forward. I admit freely the guy has some skills but lacks the most important one FINISH. I do recall someone a while back boasting about the guy on pace for 30 goals in attempt to put holes in my evaluation of this player. 4 games remain he is not going to make the 30 goal mark I will be surprised if he scores another goal as you look at the teams left to play. Smith chokes when pressured, while last season he was money in the shootout he is now replaced on a regular basis for multiple defensemen in the shootout.
IS anyone here happy with his 5 PP goals or 3 assists on the PP or do you realize he has not had a point on the PP since Feb 27th. Or how about his .167 FO percentage, no wonder Goose must be put out there so often. Now how about his SOG at Home he has 100 SOG with 9 goals. His SOG in losses is 112 while in wins has 85. Does that indicate an issue with finishing in the losses his scoring percentage in wins is .129 and in losses .080. This indicates an issue of performing under pressure. Add to that he has 10 games without a SOG. He is tied for 109 thru 115 in the league in points and 77th thur 93 tie in goals. In 16 OT games he has 1 point. 8 points on the PP this ties him for 8th on the team in PPP and considering theres only 13 players with PPP does this indicate a issue? As a center especially, Cullen, Legwand, Fish all have more assists this season. He is 5th in total TOI and 2nd in forwards TOI behind Fish. How about his PK TOI 1 minute 42 seconds for the YEAR.
Believe it or not he leads the team in shootout attempts this year with 7 and potted one goal so his .14 conversion has him replaced by defensemen in a shootout(Ohhh Nooooo its Trotz fault). There is no bigger argument than this, a player is one on one against a goalie. Last year he had 7 shootout attempts also and scored on 5 of them so what happened?
2nd on the team in shots on goal per game behind Horni and 10 more SOG than WEBER wow one would think a forward with more SOG would outperform a defenseman that shoots from the perimeter but we are talking about Weber SO I will cut a little slack here. He has 30 more shots than Fish. Now GWG is not a serious stat to most but his 3 GWG places him tie for 5th on the team with Wilson in relation to SOG one should expect more. His .27 gpg places him 4th on the team.
I could go on but I just don't make this crap up when I look at players and what there worth is to this team. I am not saying he is worthless, and as many issues I have with his game I still think he is an asset for our 3rd line. He has not shown The ability to put up numbers equal to a 1c or 2c on a playoff team, he just has not. Now he has picked up 4 assists with Hook in the mix and that's just too small of a sample to see how that will go but he has been on lines with the best the team had to offer throughout the year. Fish and Horni have both had pitiful years and have now passed Smith in points. Cullen has past him in assists so even on this team a case can be made that Cullen and Fish are the 1c and 2c. There is NO reason or excuse that Smith should not have outperformed these two this year.