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RedWang

Brendan Smith

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Smith had a decent game last night. Quincey has had three good games in a row. The common denominator: they weren't paired. I hope that Babcock will take note.

Well said Crym. I actually thought that both of them had really good games last night...... actually thought Smith may have had the best game he has played as a wing....if that crossbar was a quarter inche skinnier he would have potted the game winner.

Split them up- they don't compliment one another and let them play. They need confidence and they aren't getting it together.

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I wouldn't get your hopes up.

Not that Smith won't be good, I think he will. But some people here still have heaping leftovers of crow from Ericsson that they haven't touched. :P

I still haven't finished my bowl of crow from Kindl.

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He's an offence first defence-man who has always been erratic in his own end, who is being encouraged to play with the hand-break on to aid his long-term development and become more solid at the back end, while being paired with essentially a more solid, less skilled version of himself. His pinches are often unwise, and he passes up the middle too much for my liking, but I think if we can pair him with someone calmer and more defensively minded, we could see his development accelerate.

Him and Quincey have too many of the same flaws to really work as a pairing, and although KC is the better defenceman as things stand, he's much closer to his ceiling. Smith at least has occasionally shown real high end potential. And for all his moments of monumental stupidity, he doesn't have quincey's flaw of never clearing the bloody zone on the PK. Neither of them are bad, but I'd keep them apart. Smith is the 6th best of the D who can sometimes play worse than Lashoff, because his game is much more about risk. Basic problem is the same as we knew it would be. We lost lids, Raf & Stuart in the blink of an eye, and White went backwards badly, leaving the wings having to replace 3 of their top 4 and 4 of their top 6 far too quickly, and in Quincey made the wrong choice about who best to bring in to supplement the existing core. I think Kindl's improvement actually complicated the issue, as in his own way he is not totally dissimilar to smith and Quincey. DD has started the process of giving our defence more balance, but we need another guy (and more experienced than lashoff) who is D first in exchange for Quincey at years end. Kronner, Kindl & Smith as the more offensive guys and Big E, DD and A N Other playing the safer role.

However, the fact that 6 of our front 12 are not currently justifying their salaries is a far more pressing issue to resolve, as it would be foolish not to give smith time.

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I think Smith gets blamed to much for the defense's shortcomings. Quincy deserves a lot of the blame as does Kronwall.

It would be incorrect to attribute an entire team's defensive play (for good or ill) on one guy. However, there doesn't seem to be any problem pointing out that Smith has been our worst defenseman so far this season. Someone has to be. Obviously he's not to blame for stinkers like the Ottawa game, but I don't think it's unreasonable to ask "why is our worst defenseman playing top line minutes against Ottawa". It's pretty much universally agreed that Smith has tremendous upside, and that he should be given an opportunity to work out the kinks in his game. However, he shouldn't be allowed to do so at the expense of the team, or of other guys who have been playing better. I think that is what many people feel, and I realize that could easily be misunderstood as "blaming Smith".

Secondly, in spite of the fact that Kyle Quincey is an easy target to be a whipping boy around here, he's been incredibly solid so far this season and in no way deserves the kind of antipathy he receives on this forum.

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Does Bobby Rouse have a kid? That's who I'd like to see Smith paired with. Give the kid some time and consistency. He'll be fine. Remember all the dumb stuff you did when you were 24? Now imagine thousands watching you do it and picking you apart for it. I can already smell the crow cooking.

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Got to admit he looks good with Kronwall. When Ericsson comes back I wouldn't mind him and Kindl playing the second unit. Would help having an offense minded defensemen getting top minutes

Aren't Smith and Kindl both offensive minded defensemen?

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Sometimes more then once. But it's not his fault at all...

Watch the game he was a -2 in and got benched after and tell me which goals were his fault, watch the game against Carolina where he was a minus 1 where he made a PERFECT defensive play on the goal and Quincey effed up.

Hes not defensive stud by any means but a LARGE part of his plus minus is on Quincey and its not surprise to anyone that hes looked much better with Ouellet and now Kronwall as well

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Watch the game he was a -2 in and got benched after and tell me which goals were his fault, watch the game against Carolina where he was a minus 1 where he made a PERFECT defensive play on the goal and Quincey effed up.

Hes not defensive stud by any means but a LARGE part of his plus minus is on Quincey and its not surprise to anyone that hes looked much better with Ouellet and now Kronwall as well

Quincey was garbage last game too. 2 boneheaded penalties and gave up the breakaway in OT. He's an asshat.

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Quincey was garbage last game too. 2 boneheaded penalties and gave up the breakaway in OT. He's an asshat.

Yeah and he almost got burned pinching earlier in OT that game where he just got s*** lucky, doesnt learn tries it again and theres the game winner with 13 seconds left.

I wont say Smith has been great but hes been completely fine since hes gotten away from Quincey and even with Quincey he wasnt as bad as some people were letting on. Kindl and Ericcson were crucified their first couple seasons, Smith has played 50 NHL games and has more talent than both, theres going to be some crow to eat in a year or 2. Smith is already playing tougher compeition than Kindl

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Problem is when the whole team is doing bad, smith looks REALLY bad. At the last game I started counting the times smith and Q blew it. It wasn't good. Also, the fact we are getting out shot is something new and needs to be addressed.

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Heading into the year, I thought with some maturing our defense would be pretty deep and solid. But there is far more wrong with our defense/team than just Smith given the number of shots the Wings are giving up each game.

I agree with you on this.

On Smith I wish that offensive side of him would break out sooner rather than later. Ne needs some confidence badly.

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Ericsson and Kindl were both like that. We knew that they had potential, but it was hard to see beyond flashes here and there.

I'm not ready to punt on Smith yet. I also don't want him playing big minutes yet. Hopefully he'll have a good season in the not-too-distant future and come around.

This

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Lol the last game the Wings won was the last game Smith played in.

Yah but since then, Weiss has went down, Franzen has went down and now Alfie has not played the last two games... so the Wings have been missing lots of different pieces at different times. The problem is Babcock is not using Smith properly at all. Instead of playing stupid Kindl on the 2nd PP, play Smith and Danny D. Danny D is a WAY better passer then Kindl, and every time he shoots the puck, it goes on net or he purposely shoots wide, much like Lidstrom. Kindl always ALWAYS has his shot blocked and makes very stupid plays. Smith has always been our offensive dman prospect, but Babcock has not given him any time on the PP at all in favor of Kindl and Quincy and Sammy!

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Lol the last game the Wings won was the last game Smith played in.

Really? I thought a young player, who didn't have the luxury of learning from the perfect human and just takes a bit more time to find his game would be the worst DetroitRedWings defender ever?

I like the guy and still believe he is going to become a very serviceable top 4 defender.

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Lol the last game the Wings won was the last game Smith played in.

Can you imagine how badly the team would have struggled overall to get out of the zone if Smith played with his ridiculous over-handling and indecisiveness? At that point we should probably be thankful for the one point games.

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Can you imagine how badly the team would have struggled overall to get out of the zone if Smith played with his ridiculous over-handling and indecisiveness? At that point we should probably be thankful for the one point games.

This indecisiveness is Babs' fault. When Smith wasn't chained to his blue line in GR he was a far more composed player.

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