As you can tell from the title, I'm going to touch briefly on the win against Colorado, but I want to talk about Mike Smith and what the hell is going on in that crazy head of his.
So first off, the Coyotes won 4-0 in a must win situation. The Coyotes are excellent at home and brutal on the road so every win counts at Jobing.com arena. The second period proved to be the pushing point again.
The Coyotes extended their points streak to a season-high six games (4-0-2), but will be in tough to make the playoffs unless they can get their crap together on the road as 7 of the final 10 games are on the road. The road record is a pathetic 4-8-5 the third worst in the NHL after only Calgary and Colorado.
The Doan-Hanzal-Vrbata line was rocking and having Hanzal/Vrbata healthy and together is always great. The line combined for 6 points. Vrbata has been the top point producer when healthy this year with 20 points in 24 games while Hanzal is on pace for his best offensive season in his career (has 11 goals and 20 points in 29 games), but as usual he's brittle.
OEL has been logging massive minutes and got his offense back on with two assists. More importantly though OEL was extremely physical and had a game high 7 hits. Man I can't even imagine him in a few years when he's filled out and experienced.
Boyd Gordon added a goal and was excellent on the draw again. There was speculation that he would be moved at the deadline because he's the perfect fourth liner for any contender. That said I really hope they can re-sign him, he's been a top-end penalty killer and face-off man. At 29 he still has some years left in him and he's become a favourite of Tippett.
Now we get to Mike Smith who came back from his third injury of the season and once again looked great upon his immediate return. Smith was 0-3-1 before getting injured by Alex Edler and it shows the inconsistencies he's gone through. This was his league leading 5th shutout and when he brings it he brings it. This season has been more indicative of his career in general than last years miracle season.
Now it isn't completely fair to dump on him because he has been injured three various times with minor things this year. I just wonder why upon his initial return he's a beast, then he slows down into a sieve. Does he need the rest? Or does he need a goal? Smith seems to run on adversity and when he's complacent he's terrible.
Then we have this incident, not the first time he's tried breaking a stick on the net, but probably the first he's tried breaking another guys stick.
A lot of Smith detractors will point to this and call it whining and overreacting, the usual. Me I see it a bit differently. Smith has had his career mired in injuries, he's had several concussions in Tampa and Dallas, he's injured his hip, hand and whatever the hell "upper-body" is and that's just this season. Here's a guy that knows the injury bug. That late shove with his stick by McLeod was dangerous, his glove was halfway off and the play was dead. Smith's reaction was great, he's not going to let guys get chances to injure him and he won't let them take liberties. An angry Mike Smith is a solid Mike Smith and I liked his fire in this one.
I do wonder if he would have gotten an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty had the stick broken.
"That's my game. I didn't want to go back in there and be tentative. I wanted to get in there and do what I do, and that's when I play at my best," said Smith. "Tip told me never to beat a stick over the post again, so after I pulled it out of his hands and saw the bar, I said, ‘I better miss with this.'" Smith said. "It's an emotional game and it's the competitive spirit in me."