Puckhandling skills are a valuable commodity for NHL goalies. The really good ones can help to diffuse a forecheck and even set up offense with an effective breakout pass. Unfortunately for those goalies, an affinity with handling the puck also comes with an increased chance to make mistakes.
Mike Smith’s puck skills can be a double-edged sword. Smith tried to make a breakout pass during a Coyotes power playthat ends up in an icing call. Anze Kopitar wins the resulting face-off and then deflects Drew Doughty’s shot for a 1-1 goal, which you can view below.
As Kevin Woodley points out, that tally didn’t make Smith less brazen, as he sent a nice pass that set up an odd man rush shortly after that miscue.
So here’s the question: is it worth the risk or is Smith doing more harm than good when he handles the puck which such aplomb?
