Written by Andrew | 05 March 2012

So as I sat in my office this morning watching the sun rise over Lake Michigan...I was angry.

Angry that Detroit has dropped three out of the five games against Chicago this season so far.  Angry that I had to suffer through another game listening to the Chicago television crew.  Angry that two more players are injured.  I had started writing a post this morning...but a mix of frustration and work forced me to leave it un-posted.

As I drove through Chicago this morning I turned on NHL Home Ice as I usually do...but I figured I'd be turning it off as soon as they started discussing the Detroit-Chicago game.

Jim "Boomer" Gordan, one of my favorite guys on the Home Ice station started off with the good and the bad from last night.  "Here we go" I thought.  But to my surprise, Boomer started out the "good" section with Brendan Smith and how he fed Andrew Shaw last night "pretty good".

Make the jump for more.

Here was last night's feeding for Andrew Shaw:



...not too shabby for the kid's first NHL fight, eh?

I remember watching Brendan Smith in the pre-season last year and thinking that he had a long way to go before cracking the Detroit roster for any significant amount of time.  How far he has come.  Now, granted he has only played in six games this year...but he has been impressive nonetheless.


The picture Smith is starting to paint is that of a 40-50 point producer (roughly .5 points per game).  Now, I'm not saying that one season in the AHL and half a dozen in the Big Leagues is any good indicator of what his career should be.  But, he was a beast in college and appears to be on the fast track to becoming a solid NHL-er.

Jim "Boomer" Gordan said that Red Wings fan should look at last night's game and feel good about having Smith on the blue line for the next decade...I tend to agree.