Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin gave his opinion on Phoenix Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith during a Swedish-language interview at the World Championships.
Henrik Sedin on Mike Smith: ‘He also dives a lot’
Henrik Sedin was asked to give a scouting report on goaltender Mike Smith. His response was candid, to say the least.
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In addition to praising Smith’s size and ability with the puck, Sedin stated the Phoenix goaltender was a diver.
Here are his translated comments by Uffe Bodin of HockeySverige, via CanucksArmy.com:
”Smith is a fucking big goalie, extremely big and good at playing the puck. He also dives a lot. You can’t barely touch him, then he will fall.
“He’s the goalie in the NHL that draws more penalties than anyone else. I believe it was twelve penalties that the other team took. He goes out, holds on to the puck and then holds on, holds on. When you challenge him or barely touch him, he falls. That’s something we’ve got to be careful with. I’m going to tell the ref to keep an eye on him.”
Sedin is currently playing for Team Sweden, while Smith is acting as goaltender for Team Canada, which is why he was commenting on Smith’s attributes as a player.
In terms of his comment’s accuracy, Smith certainly has developed a reputation as a player interested in drawing calls. However, BehindtheNet.ca, Hockey-Reference.com and NHL.com do not readily make available statistics on amount of penalties drawn by goaltenders. It reamins to be seen whether Smith actually draws the most penalties of any other goalie in the league.
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