Style versus Practicality: Mike Smith Edition

by Matt Amos on Sep 21, 2010 12:33 PM EDT

The Bad News: This is another article about Mike Smith.

The Good News: It is not another article about his injured hand.

As we all know, Smith injured his hand during practice yesterday, and will be out about a week. It took a while for all the details to emerge, but I monitored the whole thing mainly here on Raw Charge. In between coming up with some of my own ridiculousness about the ordeal, doing real work, and reading some other stories around the NHL, I noticed the picture of Smith John used here when news of the injury first broke.

Seems like a normal action shot, right? Wrong. Mike Smith was wearing white pads. If you’ve followed the Lightning since ~~the day the music died~~ that saddening day when our ‘Richie’ left us, and Smith arrived, you know that he has always worn black and blue pads that were highly complementary of the Lightning’s sweaters. Most fans would admit, it looked pretty sharp. How did Smith look in net with them? Eh, you could say not so sharp.

What you may have missed, even if you’ve followed the NHL since the lockout, is that another goalie in the Eastern Conference went from some radically colored pads to plain white pads as well. In 2008, Marc-Andre Fleury went from some pretty bright yellow pads, to some plain-Jane white pads with some gold lining. In fact, his switch was pretty well-publicized (insert NHL/Bettman obsesses over the Penguins OMGZ!! joke here) including a video clip during a Versus broadcast that I was unable to dig up (Insert DTV can’t work the interweb joke here).

What happened at that point was surprising, and fairly remarkable. Despite making the pad switch during a stint on the IR, Fleury came back, new pads in hand, and put up the best numbers of his career, culminating with a Stanley Cup win in 2009. While it’s fair to argue that wins and Goals Against Average are team statistics, it’s impossible to argue that Save Percentage is. Fleury’s Save Percentage during that time frame? Roughly .930%. Compare that to his .907% lifetime. Quite a difference.

It’s a strange coincidence that Smith got hurt with his new pads. Does he come out and finally live up to the potential he was said to have when we acquired him? Does he consider the injury an omen and go back to his familiar black and blue? Does it affect him at all? One thing is for sure: We won’t know for at least a week.

For more of what I normally do, please check me out on Twitter, or over on my blog. Thanks for reading. Take care.

This post was written by a member of the Raw Charge community and doesn't necessarily express the views or opinions of Raw Charge staff.

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Comments

I hope to god he turns into MAF. but theres a better chance of vinny getting traded then smith turning into MAF.

by TomK91 on Sep 21, 2010 6:13 PM EDT reply actions

MAF actually isn’t all that great. He does have a Cup and gold medal, but he’s pretty inconsistent as well.

My blog and Twitter, featuring coverage of the winger that has now terrorized over 70 NHL goalies.

by red army line on Sep 26, 2010 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Go With White

The human brain decodes contrast through the nerve endings in the eye before anything else. So, if I’m a goalie I want the absolute least amount of contrast between my pads and the white net, ice, and boards behind me. The opposite argument is that darker contrast appears larger, therefore giving the appearance of less room in the gaps. Well, I say still go with white, because white buys more time, and while black APEARS to make less openings, it takes up the same amount space when the puck leaves the shooter’s stick and buys you nothing.

by tankerkevo on Sep 24, 2010 1:15 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Let me clarify, since I couldn't find the edit button...

APEARS, as opposed to AGRAPES.

by tankerkevo on Sep 24, 2010 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Another thing that should be brought to this discussion, that's occurring seemingly w/ myself...

A black puck is easier for a power forward standing in front of the net to locate when said black puck is sitting against a white pad. But that’s why God invented the goalie glove, you know, to hide black pucks wandering precariously in front of white pads.

by tankerkevo on Sep 24, 2010 1:31 PM EDT reply actions

There is a lot riding on Smith this year

My hopes are that the people surrounding Mike Smith this year can keep him calm(like it was said that Tocc kept Downie calm), IMO he seems to play better with a clear mind focused on stopping the puck rather than fighting and trying too much to create offense, a little is good that is his style but if he gets carried away it comes back to bite him. Another thing with Smitty that I remember is that he really dislikes other teams forwards being in his personal space. If the D can do a better job keeping them away from him I see Smith performing much better than last year.

by TBL Fat Tony on Sep 28, 2010 6:10 PM EDT reply actions