"He's a happy-go-lucky, care-free, kind of cocky, young man, but he cares."
~ full transcript ~
Dan: And we got to get Will Smith going. He hasn't had a goal in eight games. I think that he's squeezing it a little tight. He will be the last person to admit it.
Drew: Oh, absolutely. That's not what he is. He's a happy-go-lucky, care-free, kind of cocky, young man, but he cares. He cares. He's playing beside Macklin. He knows that Macklin pushes him to be that more of that guy. And he wants to be. He wants, he was a star at BC. I mean, absolutely ridiculous.
He's a terrific player, but he is squeezing a little bit tight. I want to see him skate more. I want to see him get inside more. I want to see him continue to shoot the puck because when he shoots the puck, he's so close right now. Just keep shooting. The great Mike Bossy. Mike Bossy said when he got into a scoring slump, he didn't shoot less. He shot more, way more. And it worked.
Dan: Owen Nolan says the same thing. He said whenever he was in a slump, he tried to take twice as many shots toward the net. Here's something else, though, too. When you're a great player, you always are kind of on your A-game. You have to develop a B-game. And don't you think that's one of the hardest things for an NHL player to learn?
Drew: Yes. To understand, okay, what else can I bring? I remember coach talking around his room, talking to the players and ask, Ookay, what do you do? And they'd say this and he'd go, no, no, no, no. What do you do? And make him really get specific. He said, okay, when you don't have that, what can you bring? And you have to find that out. That's again, Brian Burke, learn to play the tuba. Not everybody can be a first string violinist.
