Three times this season Brigitte Smith has packed up the four kids — aged 9, 8, 6 and 4 — and made the trek through the mountains of British Columbia and Alberta to Edmonton.
The first trip included a new rescue hunting dog. Two minutes into the drive the overexcited dog pooped.
“The kids were all just like, ‘Aaaaaahhhhhh,’” Brigitte recalled.
Advertisement
One trip included not one rescue dog but two.
“That was Mike’s idea,” Brigitte laughs.
But each of the trips has had about it a kind of feel of the epic. Because it’s not just a trip, it’s a quest and what lies at the end of all great quests? A prize.
“It has been really difficult for us to be apart,” Brigitte said. “It’s been really hard but at the same time there’s a payoff, in the end, no matter what.”
And the payoff is time for the Smith family to be together again, as Brigitte and the kids join father and husband Mike Smith, starting netminder for the Edmonton Oilers.
Would it be easier to stay home and video chat with dad? Sure.
But easy isn’t exactly in the Smith family vocabulary. And what prize isn’t worth a little sacrifice along the way. Like, say, the Stanley Cup.
Yes, Connor McDavid is going to win the Hart Trophy to go with his runaway scoring title. But if the Oilers are going to beat the Jets in the opening round of the NHL playoffs, and perhaps take the team’s first deep playoff run since 2006, they will do so because Smith, 39, will be instrumental in carrying them there.
“He’s having such an amazing year and it just goes to show that he has a lot of perseverance,” Brigitte said.
This past offseason, Smith was a free agent.
He’d spent the pandemic-shorted 2019-20 season with Edmonton but the Oilers were looking around at lots of different options. They wanted very much to sign Jacob Markstrom, who ended up down the road in Calgary. They called on other goaltenders.
Smith waited and waited. There were no calls. First time that had happened.
“And he said, ‘Maybe I’m done,’” Brigitte recalled.
But it didn’t feel like he was done. Not to him or his family.
“It’s the first time I think where he hadn’t had a call,” she said. “But he said, ‘I don’t feel like I’m done.’”
Advertisement
He also did something that was very much Mike Smith-like.
He did not mope. He found an outlet and that outlet turned out to be foil sailing.
That’s the solo sailing where the boat rises up out of the water like a hydrofoil and tears across the water. It’s not easy. But Smith taught himself from scratch, scouring the internet for videos and instructions. And then, there he was, out on the lake, foiling along much to the delight of Brigitte and the kids.
Finally, the phone rang. The Oilers wondered if Smith would like to come back on a one-year deal.
As it turns out, Smith’s $1.5 million salary might be the best bargain Oilers GM Ken Holland has ever found. Smith finished the regular season with 21-6-2 record and .923 save percentage. His advanced goaltending stats are among the best in the NHL and he should be in the discussion for a Vezina Trophy.
“I’m just so proud of him,” Brigitte said. “He’s kind of blown me away just with certain situations he’s had to deal with. His body, that’s his tool, and he takes care of it. In some ways, it’s kind of freaky how he’s getting better.”
When Smith was a kid playing hockey at the Piccadilly Arena in Frontenac County near Kingston, Ont., every week the coach would ask who wanted to play goal the next week. Every week Smith would have his hand up. Eventually, through attrition, he became the team’s goaltender.
He played junior hockey in Kingston and Sudbury and was selected by the Dallas Stars with the 161st overall pick in 2001. He spent four years in the minors, including half a season with the Lexington Men O’War of the ECHL.
“I felt I’d never get a chance to play in the NHL,” Smith recalled. “Looking back on it now it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”
He learned his craft and wherever he went Smith made an immediate impression.
Advertisement
Maybe it was the long hair. Or the enthusiasm. Or the straight out athleticism. Maybe it was the hugs.
“He gives you a bear hug,” said longtime NHL netminder Dan Ellis. “And not just a little bro hug. But a deep, hearty hug that says ‘I love you.’”
Ellis was also a Dallas draft pick and the two crossed paths at various points of their respective careers. Utah, Iowa, Tampa.
“All around he’s just an incredible person before you even get to the goaltending aspect,” Ellis said. “He treats everyone likes they’re family.”
For star Dallas netminder Marty Turco, seeing a young Smith in Dallas was to see an earlier version of himself.
“I was always raw but this guy was just a clay pot waiting to be formed,” Turco said. “And he had all the attributes.”
Smith moved in with Turco and his family. It would be a fortuitous moment on a number of levels.
A native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Turco had taken over a charity golf tournament run by Hall of Fame Sault native Ron Francis. He invited Smith to come up for the weekend.
The day was long. But as it turned out, Brigitte Acton, an Olympic skier, was also from the Soo and was tabbed to be a celebrity in Turco’s charity event.
Turco placed Brigitte in the group in front of his young teammate. The first time the two interacted, Brigitte asked Smith if he knew where the washroom was.
From such modest beginnings a family, a life.
“Now it seems like yesterday,” he said. “I hadn’t played one game in the NHL yet and she was an Olympian. She was more famous than I was at the time.”
You don’t play close to 650 NHL regular-season games as a goaltender without having some ups and downs and some moments of self-doubt or indecision.
At the 2008 trade deadline, Smith was dealt to Tampa. The rebuilding Bolts were looking to find a new franchise netminder and felt Smith had the chops to be that guy. Instead, the trade to Tampa would ultimately lead to one of the lowest points in Smith’s career.
Advertisement
“You’re traded for Brad Richards so you know the expectation is you’re going to be a number one goalie and it didn’t go as planned,” Smith said.
Things were so unsettled in the Tampa goal that during the 2010-11 season, Tampa GM Steve Yzerman acquired veteran netminder Dwayne Roloson from the Islanders.
Smith ended up being put on waivers.
“I think that was the lowest of the lows,” Smith said. “No one picked me up. And kind of for the first time, I’m like, ‘Man, I’m done.’ I think I was 25, 26 and I’m done.”
Brigitte was pregnant at the time and a few days after Smith landed in Norfolk she loaded up the couple’s dog and made the day-long drive to join her husband.
The two talked about what was next.
“Mike’s always been told from when he was younger, ‘Oh, you’re not going to make it to the NHL,’” Brigitte said. “But it’s his perseverance that has just gotten him to where he is today.”
The couple were there only in Norfolk a short time before Tampa needed Smith as a backup. And from the ashes of that 2010-11 season came a brief spark, one that would again change the course of Smith’s career.
That summer, netminder Ilya Bryzgalov left the Coyotes for big money in Philadelphia. Arizona GM Don Maloney didn’t have a lot of money to spend but the Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett spoke highly of Smith and the Coyotes signed him.
Working with longtime NHL netminder and one of the most successful goalie coaches in the game, Sean Burke, Smith refined how he played the position in Arizona and it catapulted him to the upper echelon of NHL netminders. The experience created a foundation for what has sustained Smith through the past decade.
“From a movement perspective, to be more efficient with his athleticism and his size along with his puck-playing ability,” Turco said of Smiths evolution in Arizona. “I’m just so proud of him. No, I’m not surprised. And it shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody else if you spent more than two minutes with this man.”
Advertisement
Smith adopted a style that sees him play deeper in his crease that allows him to maximize his body’s strengths, Ellis added.
“Technically, he’s sound in all aspects,” Ellis said. “Laterally his positioning is fantastic. He’s got a good glove. He’s always putting himself in a position to make a save, he’s not chasing it.”
When you have a burning desire to continue to learn, not necessarily just play, but learn, “sometimes the game gets easier,” Ellis explained. “He’s just a machine. He’s so strong. So well-built. He puts so much work in the summertime.”
Longtime netminder Jason LaBarbera met Smith when Smith arrived in Phoenix before the start of the 2011-12 season. No one was quite sure how the tandem would work out but Smith ended up commanding the net and he and LaBarbera became close friends.
“He took that tough situation in Tampa and turned it into a positive,” LaBarbera said. “Once he got the ball he never let it go.”
Smith played 67 games, won 38 and had a .930 save percentage while finishing fourth in Vezina Trophy voting.
“We hit it off right away. I was more of an inner intense guy, Mike wears his emotions on his sleeve,” LaBarbera said.
LaBarbera has made Calgary his home since retiring. He spent four years as the goalie coach with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen and this year joined the Flames’ staff as goaltending coach, a vantage point that allowed him a fresh look at his old pal.
“His game hasn’t really changed a whole lot,” LaBarbera said. “Anybody who knows Mike knows that if he’s confident there’s not many guys better in the league. Like this year.”
Stylistically Smith has learned to stay centered, to play in the middle of the ice.
That 2011-12 season remains a high water mark for Smith and the entire Coyotes organization.
The Coyotes knocked off Chicago in the first round before beating Nashville and then losing to eventual Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles in the Western Conference final.
Advertisement
The series victory of the Blackhawks was particularly memorable.
“That was as close to one person single-handedly winning a series as I’ve ever seen,” longtime Arizona captain Shane Doan said. “I’m still so beyond grateful for that opportunity. That was amazing. Smitty, I mean he beat Chicago. It was amazing to watch. His ‘A’ game is as good as anyone that I’ve ever seen.”
Even now, almost a decade later, Doan is hardly surprised that Smith continues to be an elite NHL netminder.
“Smitty’s understanding of the game is what makes him so good. His competitiveness, those are the things that stood out,” Doan said. “He and I got to be really, really close.”
But that closeness did not come at the expense of the competitive side of things.
“We were both so competitive it could make the room a little awkward,” Doan admitted. “We could get in each other’s faces. People were not sure if this was going to be okay. But at the same time, he was literally like a brother and we could be so open and honest with each other. I’m a huge fan of his heart.”
Sometimes when players reach a certain age everything is shot through that prism. It defines who they are. So successes and failures are all relative to age. The same thing happens to the very young. So the teenage rookie in the NHL and the 40-year goaltender are sometimes treated the same way, as though their actions on the ice are a reflection only of their age, both good and bad.
Some players can accept that will be the case. Some, especially older players, bristle at the notion that their accomplishments are only seen as relative to their age. As in, wow, he’s playing pretty good for an old guy.
“I could care less what people are saying or talking about,” Smith said. “I’ve said all along age is just a number whether you’re in pro sports or not.”
Advertisement
The dynamic that brought Smith to Edmonton isn’t all that different from the one that saw Smith land in Phoenix.
Tippett, now the Edmonton bench boss, of course, knew what Smith was going to bring to the table and it’s one of the reasons he was more than comfortable having him return this season. But what he has delivered on the ice has beyond anyone’s reasonable expectations.
“Everybody wants to play a long time but sometimes guys get tired of putting the work in that allows you to play,” Tippett said. “That’s where he sets himself apart. He puts the work in.
“Mentally he’s still as strong as ever. He just kind of galvanizes his position with the team. And he’s easy to follow.”
It’s easy to imagine a story like this as a kind of retrospective. Does Smith view it through the same lens?
“I don’t think so,” he said. “Obviously over the course of my career, I’ve had time to reflect on what I have and haven’t accomplished.”
While there have been lots of highs, including an Olympic gold medal in 2014 as the third goalie for Team Canada, there is a place on the Smith mantel for a Stanley Cup replica.
So all the talk of legacy and future and what next or anything like that is fodder for another day.
“It’s just so hard to imagine that when you’re in the moment, when you’re playing you are just in the zone,” Smith said. “I still enjoy it. I just enjoy the camaraderie, going to the rink, putting in the work it takes, that you need to put in physically, mentally. I love that part of it. And when that goes away that’s probably when I’ve had enough.”
Maybe someday Smith will be happy just to have a job. To simply be on an NHL roster.
Maybe. But not now.
“It’s just the drive that I have,” he added. “That’s the one thing this year I proved that I could still play at a high level, and that I still have it in me to play well.”
(Top photo: Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)