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NYC Wings Fanatic

Is the Real Brendan Smith Finally Starting the Show Up?

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Hi guys,

As much we have been down on Brendan and his costly bonehead passes to the opposition and such, with his recent 2 goals and his looking far more confident in joining the rush, isn't this the Brendan Smith that we envisioned before he was ever called up from Grand rapids? He seems to be smelling offensive blood now (last few games) when he joins a rush, and commits to the play in going right to the net, knowing that the winger (hopefully) will have his back covered defensively. Maybe Babs or the assistants sat down with him to give him the okay to freelance a bit more than he had, but to me, this Brendan Smith version 2.0 is what I had thought he could potentially be when he was still seen as one of our top prospects - an offensively gifted and aggressive D man with snarl, speed, and some size - one that we have rarely seen. Do you guys think he is finally showing signs of coming out of his shell, or has he just had a couple of lucky games?

Edited by NYC Wings Fanatic

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Honestly, I still can't get over how he single handedly contributed with one bone-headed play after another and destroyed our chances in beating Chicago in the playoffs last year. He was the stupidest player, young or old, I had ever seen on the ice in a Wings jersey. A complete moron who earned a benching thirty times over. Whether or not he is suddenly getting a few ounces of grey matter and scoring here and there is irrelevant - he will never be a player of consequence on this team or any other team.

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Honestly, I still can't get over how he single handedly contributed with one bone-headed play after another and destroyed our chances in beating Chicago in the playoffs last year. He was the stupidest player, young or old, I had ever seen on the ice in a Wings jersey. A complete moron who earned a benching thirty times over. Whether or not he is suddenly getting a few ounces of grey matter and scoring here and there is irrelevant - he will never be a player of consequence on this team or any other team.

Wow! It might be a bit premature to write him off so early, isn't it? This is only his second full season with the Wings, so couldn't a light go off in his brain, the coaching sinks in, and the mental part that has given him so much of a problem click in at some point? I would like to think that this is still possible, since he does offer so much promise if and when he finally understands what a defenseman is supposed to do. Like they say, defensemen do take longer to develop the mental aspect past of the game, so I would hope for our sake that there is still time.

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It's hard to say, but he does seem to be finding ways to get away with more mistakes than before at least. He's scoring more, too. Overall I'd say he still has a ways to go, but he is doing better and will continue to get better. His skill set is more appropriate for a forward imho, but he has a lot of tools that will at least make him a wildcard threat to the opposition on a regular basis. I don't think it is fair to say he will never be relevant because he crapped the bed in a series against the league's best team in a playoff series after his 48 game rookie season.

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It's hard to say, but he does seem to be finding ways to get away with more mistakes than before at least. He's scoring more, too. Overall I'd say he still has a ways to go, but he is doing better and will continue to get better. His skill set is more appropriate for a forward imho, but he has a lot of tools that will at least make him a wildcard threat to the opposition on a regular basis. I don't think it is fair to say he will never be relevant because he crapped the bed in a series against the league's best team in a playoff series after his 48 game rookie season.

I agree that now, many times, he does seem to be better suited in a lot of ways to be a forward instead of a defenseman, but hopefully in the (near) future, he will get his defensive abilities and outlook in line with his clear offensive skills.

Edited by NYC Wings Fanatic

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Guest DeGraa55

I think in the next about five years. Either him or dekeyser will end up on the top line....maybe even both. I honk both these guys will end up being better than both kronwall and Ericsson. And this is with having both of their growth ruined by playing with Quincey and kindl.

Pairing them up with kronwall and Ericsson now would be so much better....imo

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Smith has little flashes of skill time to time where you can see potential. I actually did see an improvement in the last few games. It will just take time for him to solidify his defensive game. I don't think he'll be great but I can definitely see him as a decent second pairing in the future. If we had less of a log jam up at forward I'd suggest putting him there and seeing what he can do but we don't have that luxury.

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Once babs smartens up and puts him on the pp for good we will all be drooling over his talent. Babs really discouraged him early on from play his style of risky hockey because it caused turnovers - but smitty just needs to run and gun because even if he isn't he still turns the puck over just as much in my opinion.

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Honestly, I still can't get over how he single handedly contributed with one bone-headed play after another and destroyed our chances in beating Chicago in the playoffs last year. He was the stupidest player, young or old, I had ever seen on the ice in a Wings jersey. A complete moron who earned a benching thirty times over. Whether or not he is suddenly getting a few ounces of grey matter and scoring here and there is irrelevant - he will never be a player of consequence on this team or any other team.

WTH are you talking about? He's a rookie for crying out loud. Nevermind, you must not watch hockey much.

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I remember when Quincey was supposed to be the next Mat Schneider. The last step in development is always the toughest, especially for a d-man. There isn't a guarantee of anyone getting over the hump from experience alone, but hopefully with his skillset and good fundamental coaching he will get there but it appears it will have to be drilled into his head.

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WTH are you talking about? He's a rookie for crying out loud. Nevermind, you must not watch hockey much.

I think you need to temper that a bit. I agree that he's a rookie and therefore it's premature to throw in the towel on him...but...lots of other rookies (Lashoff and Dekeyser for instance) manage to go game to game without being noticeably terrible at protecting the puck or maintaining zone coverages. Smith is bad at both...even for a rookie.

The guy you were responding to is wrong for thinking that Smith's deficiencies doom him to a awful career, likewise you're wrong for insinuating that his being a rookie excuses him from having to play responsible defense.

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The question with Smith-Kindl as well, isn't talent. it is between the ears. But and always keep this in mind: D take longer to develop. Always has been the case. Why? Who knows, but they do.

That's an easy answer it's hard to think forward when you are skating backwards more than forward........yes that was a joke!

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The question with Smith-Kindl as well, isn't talent. it is between the ears. But and always keep this in mind: D take longer to develop. Always has been the case. Why? Who knows, but they do.

I actually think with Kindl it's about guts, and with Smith it's about smarts. Kindl won't take a hit to make a good pass...Smith WILL take the hit AND THEN turn around and make the bad pass. It's hard to gauge what's worse, a coward or an idiot.

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I actually think with Kindl it's about guts, and with Smith it's about smarts. Kindl won't take a hit to make a good pass...Smith WILL take the hit AND THEN turn around and make the bad pass. It's hard to gauge what's worse, a coward or an idiot.

Out of the two I'll take idiot.

Every time I think Kindl has changed his game, he reverts to cowering from a hit and blindly getting rid of the puck. Which is especially frustrating given he is 6'3" and 216 lbs. Kindl is bigger than everyone on the Red Wings blueline except Ericsson.

But the bad decision making is hopefully correctable. It's about learning to be consistent for a whole game and not making a terrible decision when you're tired or trying to do too much.

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Out of the two I'll take idiot.

Every time I think Kindl has changed his game, he reverts to cowering from a hit and blindly getting rid of the puck. Which is especially frustrating given he is 6'3" and 216 lbs. Kindl is bigger than everyone on the Red Wings blueline except Ericsson.

But the bad decision making is hopefully correctable. It's about learning to be consistent for a whole game and not making a terrible decision when you're tired or trying to do too much.

Hard to argue with you. I was obviously always more of a Kindl guy, but he's been sitting and it hasn't really hurt us so I really can't say I've got strong feelings either way anymore. I'm not particularly happy with either, but I suppose a s***ty defenseman, who scores occasionally, and punches someone once in a while is better than a s***ty defenseman, who scores occasionally, and doesn't.

To be honest I think both of them would be drastically better if they were on different teams. Like every other position, Babs requires his players be good both ways, and neither of these guys seem up to it (so far). On a team where they could just do all offense, all the time, both would at least excel in that regard. Seems like Babs would rather not have the offense if it means being bad defensively, while others might rather accept the bad defense in favor of more offense. On a team where they were turned loose they'd produce more, but their defensive development would essentially end right where it is now.

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Smith is an offensive defensman; I think we can all see that in his game. I agree with Kip though, that Babs cares about defense before offense, so Smith needs to learn to take care of things on the defensive side of the puck, and adapt his offensive game without sacrificing scoring opportunities against us. He's getting better every week at this. Last year most of LGW wanted him off the team, earlier this year more folks started believing that he could be solid for us, and now we have a thread dedicated to "the real Brendan Smith" finally showing up. I still believe he has a ways to go, and ultimately see him being the Brian Rafalski that we've been missing in a couple years. Time will tell if he reaches that potential or not, but he's trending in the right direction.

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I think you need to temper that a bit. I agree that he's a rookie and therefore it's premature to throw in the towel on him...but...lots of other rookies (Lashoff and Dekeyser for instance) manage to go game to game without being noticeably terrible at protecting the puck or maintaining zone coverages. Smith is bad at both...even for a rookie.

The guy you were responding to is wrong for thinking that Smith's deficiencies doom him to a awful career, likewise you're wrong for insinuating that his being a rookie excuses him from having to play responsible defense.

True, I was a bit hard on the guy, but its not like a hockey forum is a place for careful critical thinking and rational arguments. You sir are a gentleman and scholar while I was... less so. Still, Smith is the last player I am pinning my hopes on for this team.

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Smith is an offensive defensman; I think we can all see that in his game. I agree with Kip though, that Babs cares about defense before offense, so Smith needs to learn to take care of things on the defensive side of the puck, and adapt his offensive game without sacrificing scoring opportunities against us. He's getting better every week at this. Last year most of LGW wanted him off the team, earlier this year more folks started believing that he could be solid for us, and now we have a thread dedicated to "the real Brendan Smith" finally showing up. I still believe he has a ways to go, and ultimately see him being the Brian Rafalski that we've been missing in a couple years. Time will tell if he reaches that potential or not, but he's trending in the right direction.

I also think that "he is trending in the right direction", and I think that is a good way to phrase it. I think that with his skills, at all lower levels of hockey that he has played until the NHL, he thought of himself as somewhat of a badass - a hockey player being like a gunslinger that hasn't met his match to date. He was always mostly a big fish in a small pond, but now, he can't out maneuver the opposition based on his above average physical skills alone (skating, stick handling, etc).

The complete opposite was Nick Lidstrom, who despite a laser slapshot, relied mostly on smarts, and I think that we can all agree that he flourished this way. He wasn't Coffey fast, Weber physical, etc., but his positioning and anticipation were superhuman, and hopefully, Mr. Smith will take some of that to heart one day soon, and combine his God-given abilities with intelligent hockey. I think you can tell from interviews that he is not just plain dumb, so it must be that he still hasn't accepted the fact that the skills that allowed him to dominate at lower levels are not so unusual in the pro game. I think that (hopefully) if and when he ever catches on and buys into the program, watch out!

Edited by NYC Wings Fanatic

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True, I was a bit hard on the guy, but its not like a hockey forum is a place for careful critical thinking and rational arguments. You sir are a gentleman and scholar while I was... less so. Still, Smith is the last player I am pinning my hopes on for this team.

I completely agree, and my views on Smith are pretty well established. But I do recognize that a guy can develop late...particularly in our system. I was one of the "f*ck Ericsson" folks a couple years ago and I had to eat crow on that. So I have to at least consider the possibility that Smith could do the same, as much as I hate his stupid face.

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