smith is just finding his feet. you can see his confidence grow with each game. he looked better towards the end of the ducks series when he scored his first goal of the season and has improved a bit each game since. he will be a great player for years to come once he settles in and learns when he should use his skill and when to just play it smart/simple.
Remember when we were all calling for Holland to buy low on Bogosian and then atlanta didn't trade him and it turned out he became a stud? The same could very well happen here.
I feel like in certain seasons certain players just get in a groove. For the last few seasons Z's groove has been assists over goals and has played that kind of hockey. But some players develop a knack for the net that lasts for a season then fades. Think Brad Boyes, Nick Backstrom etc.. If you aren't a pure goalscorer but you get hot early on (and have the tools to score) you can put up monster numbers for a year. I think it is entirely possible that if Z got hot early next season playing on Datsyuk's wing he could get above 30 goals again easily. Its just about habit and hitting that perfect habit early.
Lets hope Smith settles the f*** down. Just listen to the guy in interviews - he talks a mile a minute. He needs to SLOW DOWN and just relax. He is so worried about doing something wrong he forgets to do things right. His interviews mirror his game play.
The NHL is about "game management" from the refs. They want to keep it exciting and if they called that penalty it would have sealed the game pretty much. f*** the excitement - call it fair.
We really can't afford to trade Sproul. He is the RH stud dman that we have been sorely missing. I'd rather lose any other of our prospect dmen at this point and pretty much any prospect other than Jarnkrok. If Holland grows the stones to actually make a trade for an impact player he had better not include this kid.