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Sharks Locker Room: Let’s Talk About Will Smith’s Benching

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Credit: Dean Tait/Sport Shots

Will Smith, like the rebuilding San Jose Sharks, is learning on the job.



It’s normal for a teenager in the NHL to be down, then up, then down again. It’s normal for a young team to be down, then up, then down again.

Generally, you can divide both Smith and San Jose’s seasons so far in three parts.

For Smith, he had zero points in his first eight games. Then, he enjoyed an 11 points-in-14-games run. But, over his last 15 appearances, he has just three points.

It’s not just about points, of course, but they paint a picture.

For the Sharks, they started off 0-7-2. Then, they went on a 10-6-3 run. But, in their last 17 appearances, they’re 3-13-1.

All this came to a head on Saturday, a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild. Smith was benched 14:57 into the second period, and didn’t see another shift for the rest of the contest.

“Just went with the guys that were going,” Warsofsky said tersely afterwards. He would speak empathetically about Smith later in the presser though.

Two plays stood out about Smith’s performance on Saturday, one good, one bad.

For what it’s worth, it wasn’t just one play that got Will Smith benched, as noted in my game diary.

Ryan Warsofsky said about his philosophy of when to bench, when not to bench: “A lot of it comes down to how many times have we talked about the mistake? Is this the third, fourth, fifth time, or is this the first time?”

This was Smith’s last shift of the game:

Smith (2) has the right idea on the breakout, a stationary pass from the wall to the support speed coming up the middle, if he intended to connect with Jan Rutta (84). But under no pressure, Smith fastballs a routine backhand pass, somehow missing an open Rutta. So perhaps, a bad idea, he was trying to hit Luke Kunin (11) with the pass? Either way, Matt Boldy (12) turns the literal gift into basically three consecutive Grade-A chances.

“I want to see a guy, if he does turn a puck over, does he track as hard as he can back? Is their effort there?” Warsofsky said.

Just as important as the mistake is how Smith reacts to it: It’s a fire drill because of him, and while his first impulse to take Boldy on the wall is fine, he stays in that not-as-dangerous area, after Boldy gives up the puck, instead of hustling over to the high-danger middle of the ice. Declan Chisholm (47) comes down the slot unmarked because of this.

Here, Smith fails to execute a critical and routine play, then isn’t alert as possible in the chaos.

“Just a kid that’s going through a part of his development and has got some low confidence,” Warsofsky said.

Okay, now the good, and why the San Jose Sharks continue to have confidence in Smith.

A smart Rutta pinch causes a turnover, which Smith jumps on. Making a low-key great pass, Smith is able to wait out an outstretched Jake Middleton (5) stick, hitting Kunin with a pass that’s hard enough to beat Middleton but soft enough for Kunin to handle. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s a high-end pass.

Will Smith, for all his struggles, is still making plays.

For Smith, like the Sharks, it’s not about one benching or one loss, or even a stretch of demotions and defeats. So let’s not overreact to that.

“We’ve seen some major strides from him since training camp, and we expect him to continue to get better and better,” Warsofsky said of Will Smith recently. “And I think the player you see now will be completely different by the time you see this player at game 82.”

That’s the big picture.

Right now, bad game, bad moment, it’s about Smith getting off the mat, like San Jose has recently, and showing some fortitude, some growth.

The Sharks responded from a dismal New Year’s Eve effort against the Philadelphia Flyers and an eight-game losing streak with two of their best games of the season against Eastern Conference powers, victories over the Tampa Bay Lightning and New Jersey Devils. They responded from two underwhelming showings against the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Hockey Club with a victory-worthy performance against the Wild.

Smith’s development and San Jose’s rebuild, at least in season, were never going to be linear progress: There have been, and there’s going to be, real ups and downs this season. Inconsistency is the only consistency.

That’s okay. That should be expected.

“We got to work with him and get him back,” Warsofsky said.

Let’s see if Smith, like the Sharks have, can rally back.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on benching Smith:

Just went with the guys that were going.

Warsofsky, on what Smith is going through:

Just a kid that’s going through a part of his development and has got some low confidence. We got to work with him, and we got to help him. He’s gotten points his whole life, and this is probably the first time he’s going through a little stretch where he’s not getting points. And for a guy that’s like him and is dynamic like him, it can eat at you.

Flip side of it, this is a kid that’s played center most of his career. He’s playing wing, and obviously there’s going to be some details that go with that in the National Hockey League, going up against the [Marcus] Folignos and some big guys in the walls. And details with that position, there comes a lot, and he’s just not used to it again.

So we got to work with him and get him back.

Warsofsky, on if Smith needs to simplify and play more north-south:

Yeah, a little bit. But there’s a lot more to it too. There’s a lot more, setting your body up positionally-wise for pucks when they come up the wall, whether that puck is rimmed, whether that puck is direct, whether that puck’s in your feet, how do you protect it from the middle of the ice? There’s a lot of details that go into it, but you got to kind of start over and simplify his game.

Macklin Celebrini

Celebrini, on what makes he and Eklund so dangerous on the rush:

Eky’s a special player, very good skater, knows how to make plays, and he can get to the hard areas. He’s an unreal player for us.

William Eklund

Eklund, on how he complements Celebrini on the rush:

I think we want to play a pretty similar game. We want to have the puck, we want to attack with speed. Both pretty skilled on the ice out there. Toff helps a lot, too, with his skill. I think we complement each other good out there.

Eklund, on the message from the San Jose Sharks coaching staff after back-to-back disappointing efforts:

Obviously, our compete level has to come up a little bit more, and I think we did that tonight. Wasn’t enough, but step in the right direction.

Jake Walman

Walman, on how he felt in layoff:

I mean, it’s just hockey, but yeah, time off, it takes a little bit to adjust, so it’ll get better and better.

Walman, on Yaroslav Askarov’s puckhandling:

It’s fun to watch him when I’m up top. It’s fun to play with him when I’m on the ice. He has all the confidence in the world. I love when goalies go back and play the puck. That’s the biggest thing. It’s like having an extra player out there. So helps us out, even if we get in trouble. Sometimes, for the most part, it’s easier to break the puck out. I’ll tell me him to keep doing that.

Walman, on how dangerous the Celebrini line was on the rush:

They’re angry for the puck every time. They’re competing, they’re tenacious in the battles, even in the D-zone, they’re trying to get the puck as quick as they can. Makes it easier when we’re out there, when they’re out there, to get the puck out, get in the O-zone. And those guys are special when they get the puck. So I think it’s just tenacity from them, and I love that they’re competing all over the ice, and they’re pissed off when it doesn’t go their way. So just keep that same energy.

 

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