Phoenix Coyotes' Mike Smith remains confident in abilities
Considering he was a bystander for the latter stages of the team's playoff push, Coyotes goalie Mike Smith isn't to blame for the team failing to grab a berth in the final weeks of the season.
But inconsistency in his play earlier in the calendar was at least one of the reasons why the Coyotes were in a heated race up until Game 81.
"Goaltending through the middle of the season for me wasn't where it needed to be," Smith said. "I was kind of doing some soul-searching, and we lost some games because of that."
To be fair, this season was unusual for Smith. He was in contention for a spot on Team Canada's Olympic roster, and that decision wasn't far from his mind while performing for the Coyotes up until the Jan. 7 roster reveal.
"Mentally, it was kind of tough leading up to the Olympics and not knowing if I was going to be on the team or not," he said.
Perhaps it wasn't a surprise, then, when Smith was at his best post-Olympics. Take a look at where his goals-against average and save percentage sat each month of the season:
- 2.97 and .912 in October
- 3.17 and .908 in November
- 2.46 and .917 in December
- 2.99 and .898 in January
- 1.39 and .955 in February
- 2.19 and .924 in March
During these consecutive non-playoff seasons, Smith finished with similar statistics. His 2.64 goals-against average this past season ranked 30th, while his .915 save percentage was 25th. The season before that, Smith was at a 2.58 goals-against average (28th) and .910 save percentage (25th).
When he guided the Coyotes to the Western Conference finals, Smith's 2.21 goals-against average was seventh in the league and his .930 save percentage tied for third.
"Obviously, I feel confident that I can be that guy and I think I learned a lot about myself this year going through that again," Smith said. "To have success and then to be able to keep that was a challenge, and I think I found a way out of it this year and obviously I'll learn from that and be a better goalie because of it."
Three ingredients
Goaltending is one of three factors General Manager Don Maloney believes critical to success. Coaching and a team's overall chemistry are the other two, and Maloney contends all except coach Dave Tippett's role were iffy at times this season.
"Our goaltending? Average first half. Real good second half," Maloney said. "Coaching? Second-to-none. Chemistry? We're going to have to look at that."
Looking ahead
The Martin Erat acquisition before the trade deadline didn't boost the Coyotes offense like Maloney had hoped, but he's still encouraged Erat can be a valuable piece next season.
Erat has one more season remaining on his contract and has a $2.25 million salary despite carrying a $4.5 million cap hit.
"I thought the last four, five games Martin Erat started to show what we hope and expect next year," Maloney said. "I think he had four points the last five games. At least there's a sign of a heart beat there and some hope. But it certainly didn't ignite the offense that we certainly thought when we made that deal."
