joesuffP

I know smith will be a good player one day but he shouldn't be playing right now it's not good for him or the team. There should be consequences for how you play both positive and negative. in a couple years he'll be good and everyone will bump this thread laughing about it but the fact is the team wants to win right now and that's all I care about The only logic is see from him playing on the 2nd pairing instead of 3rd is that Babcock is training him to play lots of minutes. There should be pressure to be better though and also good play from the 3rd pairing should be rewarded as well. Our best performers should be getting the most ice time simple as that

Ya Babcock has a man-crush on smith. I can't wait til our prospects are ready for some NHL experience but they sit for smith as he continues to lose us games. I don't think Babcock will ever demote or scratch smith. He's the Cleary on defense. So what he lost us three games in a row... He's a competitor and that's what competitors do they compete. Sometimes they compete so hard they compete the puck in their own net but one day he'll compete the puck into the other net and then all this losing will be worth it

I don't see how this experience is good for smith either. Half his NHL career is all negative and he seems to not have a problem with it cause he hasn't made the slightest adjustment to to improve. Bench his ass and show him how much better you have to be for playoffs next year. And for him to be guaranteed a top 4 spot is making him entitled to the role no matter how he plays. I don't understand how you don't put Kindl up he has been great and has more experience

So far smith plays a good game after about 55 terrible ones so around mid season he'll be a stud for a game

If white was playing instead of smith last night I believe we would have won. Also in our other losses the game got away from us but with a real athlete playing for him that may have never got to that point

Smith is an embarrassment he is directly costing us huge goals. Why would you want him to keep playing so when he scores a goal you can be like I told you guys? For the most part out defense has been great actually. Then smith comes out and takes a dump on everyone's effort. How many times has Quincey broken up breakaways and odd man rushes because of smith. Those would be goals during our regular season Smith has been brutal all season none of this is new either. Game 4 was the only good game I've ever seen him play in the NHL and that wasn't outstanding it was not ******* up

My favorite plays from smith is when he has the puck and both teams are changing and he flies around and can't make the red line and ices the puck. Once a period. I can't stand this guy wearing a red wings jersey he may get better but for everything he has cost us I can't stand him. How can you be a competitor when you are obviously the worst defenseman on either team night in night out with out making any slight adjustments. Add that to Quincey playing great. If we had any kind of real athlete on his side we would be nice defensively but smith makes it our huge weakness

I would give anything for Babcock to put white in for smith. He can't instill too much confidence when we have a handicap playing top 4 minutes. How many times does the guy have to put out a full on s*** show before he gets benched . So depressing watching this man fall apart in big games with the only excuse being his growing pains. Take smith out and this team is much better simple as that. He hasn't gotten better just letting him fry in huge games and hoping he doesn't cost us too many goals. It's better for the team and his development to not play until he's ready (hopefully it will be on a different team when he's ready)

Puck was battled back in I've seen a lot of refs blow that offside

Played bad in all 3rd periods these playoffs and had two bad games in these elimination games. The whole team choked but Howard did as well

And also the Blackhawks 2nd goal was an obvious offside

I'd rather put blame on things we can change. The whole team top to bottom gave up after giving up the early goal. Howard was so mad about the penalty shot call he didn't even move on the shot

I bet Babcock has some man-crush on Smith a la Cleary. He is gonna be completely terrible and we'll have players in the minors better than him but he will never f*** up bad enough to get benched. To the point he has no trade value cause he has terrible stats and looks atrocious on the ice

Smith should have been sitting since Game 2 in Anaheim. White is a veteran and will be playing for a contract. There is no chance in hell he can be worse than smith but there is a chance he can be atleast competent and that will go a long way

Look what happened when we put an ice cold colo in... Smith is the worst defenseman on the ice night in night out. With smith out and White in for this game I bet we win

The whole team gave up from Zetterberg to Kindl. Howard kept pouting about the goal and got scored on-yeah that showed him you champion

I've never seen a team just give up when they're down in elimination games it's pathetic. 2 in a row just quit and gave up its pretty positive feeling going into game 7

Smith has the unique skill to will a loss to his team no matter how good they are playing. Now he left the griffins and look at them. Ericsson and Lebda were never this bad

Turning it off what a collapse. Datsyuk supposed to be a leader

What a terrible looking collapse.. At this point smith and Kindl are only gonna get worse as the game goes on there fried

This series is over I ******* knew this would happen... We had them and were playing well and smith is still allowed on the ice. I don't even want him on this team after what he cost us all year

Howard looked like he didn't even try on that shot

Ya flip and clears watch Zetterberg battle 3 blackhawks

Really we were up going into the 3rd and if smith isn't playing the games a different story

Howard you look like a sack of s*** keep pouting during the shot you clown