Full admission: I was very down on the Smith acquisition in the offseason, for both his age (kicking the goalie solution down the road) and his play in recent seasons. However, he's up there with Gaudreau as one of the MVPs of the first 1/4 of the season.
For his acquisition to be a home run, IMO there are 3 things he needs to accomplish:
1. Show he can still play at a very high level;
2. Show he can play consistently throughout the year; and
3. Stay healthy.
He's already checked item 1, having a .936 sv% through the first 12 games, single handedly preventing the Flames from digging a really big hole to start the year.
2 and 3 are still TBD, requiring more time, but putting in a great performance tonight (and a sold effort in Detroit) to break up a rougher period was a good sign that he could check item 2. I've definitely moved from fearful to hopeful.
Last edited by Mike F; 11-20-2017 at 09:08 PM.
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