The Edmonton Oilers are fully aware that getting past the Chicago Blackhawks, who still roster several top players from their three Stanley Cup victories last decade, will be no small task in their best-of-five play-in series this summer.
“You look at Chicago, the thing that jumps out at you is the championship pedigree they have in (Jonathan) Toews, and (Patrick) Kane, and (Duncan) Keith," Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said Wednesday, according to Sportsnet's Mark Spector.
"They’re top, top players - elite players. And you have to respect where they’ve been, what they’ve done."
The Oilers finished with a much better points percentage (.585) than the Blackhawks (.514) and thus own the higher seed in the No. 5 versus No. 12 matchup.
Edmonton, however, enters the play-in round with considerably less postseason experience. The Blackhawks' roster features eight players who've played in at least 65 career playoff games, while the Oilers boast just one who meets that mark in veteran winger James Neal. Despite the discrepancy, Tippett expects his club to be up to the task.
"We're going to concentrate on what we have to do to be successful," Tippett said. "We'll be prepared for what we have to do, and also look at Chicago and see if there's anything we have to be aware of going into the series."
League play was suspended March 12. Tippett predicts that players will respond to the long layoff differently, and that will have an impact on the Oilers' lineup strategy.
“There are going to be guys who have an extra jump in their step, and there might be some guys where the pause has taken a toll on their bodies. We'll monitor that," said Tippett. "Some of it is, we'll look at our opponent and see if there are some matchups that are better than others. There are a lot of questions."
Both the Blackhawks and the Oilers last appeared in the postseason in 2017.
The Edmonton Oilers are fully aware that getting past the Chicago Blackhawks, who still roster several top players from their three Stanley Cup victories last decade, will be no small task in their best-of-five play-in series this summer.
“You look at Chicago, the thing that jumps out at you is the championship pedigree they have in (Jonathan) Toews, and (Patrick) Kane, and (Duncan) Keith," Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said Wednesday, according to Sportsnet's Mark Spector.
"They’re top, top players - elite players. And you have to respect where they’ve been, what they’ve done."
The Oilers finished with a much better points percentage (.585) than the Blackhawks (.514) and thus own the higher seed in the No. 5 versus No. 12 matchup.
Edmonton, however, enters the play-in round with considerably less postseason experience. The Blackhawks' roster features eight players who've played in at least 65 career playoff games, while the Oilers boast just one who meets that mark in veteran winger James Neal. Despite the discrepancy, Tippett expects his club to be up to the task.
"We're going to concentrate on what we have to do to be successful," Tippett said. "We'll be prepared for what we have to do, and also look at Chicago and see if there's anything we have to be aware of going into the series."
League play was suspended March 12. Tippett predicts that players will respond to the long layoff differently, and that will have an impact on the Oilers' lineup strategy.
“There are going to be guys who have an extra jump in their step, and there might be some guys where the pause has taken a toll on their bodies. We'll monitor that," said Tippett. "Some of it is, we'll look at our opponent and see if there are some matchups that are better than others. There are a lot of questions."
Both the Blackhawks and the Oilers last appeared in the postseason in 2017.
It's invitingly easy to contrast Dalton Smith's NHL career, all 86 seconds of it, with that of his dad, Derrick, a reliable depth center for elite Flyers teams in the 1980s. Or those of his uncles, Keith and Wayne Primeau, who combined to play 1,683 regular-season games. Or that of 20-year-old Cayden Primeau - Keith's son, Smith's cousin, Carey Price's emergency backup, and the youngest goalie to appear in the league this season.
If the Smiths and Primeaus aren't hockey royalty, they're surely part of its noblesse. Hailing from a family so accomplished is a blessing and a challenge, Smith said over the phone recently from Oshawa, Ontario, his hometown east of Toronto. The members of the hard-nosed old guard press him to finish his checks and stay in top shape. They suggest little ways he could refine and raise his game, knowledgeable guidance he's fortunate to have and for which he's grateful.
The attendant obligation that's shaped Smith's time in the sport: trying at once to add to their legacy and to fashion his own distinct story.
"Growing up and seeing them and always idolizing them and wanting to be like them, it's obviously a lot harder to do than to dream of," said Smith, 27, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound left winger in the Buffalo Sabres organization. "That's always been a tough part: trying to get there."
Dalton Smith debuted in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 31. Bill Wippert / NHL / Getty Images
On New Year's Eve 2019, Smith got there, finally and then fleetingly. Nearly a decade after he was selected 34th overall in the 2010 draft, he delivered on the promise that that draft slot conveys for one minute and 26 seconds, the ice time Buffalo entrusted him with in a revenge game of sorts against Tampa Bay. In his NHL debut, he also earned a two-minute roughing penalty.
Fittingly for a veteran minor-league grinder, these numbers make Smith the rare player (one of 10 in the past 20 years) whose career penalty minutes total exceeds his NHL time on ice. Buffalo returned Smith to the AHL's Rochester Americans early in January, so as it stands, he owns the NHL's seventh-shortest career since 1997, when ice time became an official stat - one second less than former Sabres winger Sean McMorrow's 1:27, and less than everyone else who took a shift in 2019-20.
"Hey, I'll take it," Smith said. "It was the best time of my life so far."
That this designation doesn't rankle Smith speaks to the significance of the twists and trials - a trade, several AHL contracts, an ECHL demotion, his necessarily continued effort to keep pace in a faster and increasingly skillful game - he faced en route to his stint in the show. Smith played exactly 400 games for six teams in the minors before the Sabres, who were coming off three straight losses, were hobbled by injury at forward, and were seeking to augment the muscle in their lineup, signed him to a two-way deal and recalled him from Rochester on Dec. 30.
Even for a high second-round pick, it's difficult to reach the NHL under any set of circumstances and for any duration. Sometimes, it's nice to notice and celebrate even the briefest cameo, as those around Smith did around the time of his call-up.
Dalton Smith (in blue) pursues the puck for the Rochester Americans this season. Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
The day before the game against the Lightning, Rochester forward Rasmus Asplund told the AHL team's website that Smith's value as a leader and energizer belies the minimal media attention he tends to receive. "I'm really happy for him, so I hope he gets a couple minutes to enjoy it as well," Asplund said, more prophetically than he perhaps intended. Speaking to the Olean Times Herald a few days after Smith's debut, Wayne Primeau called his nephew "the ultimate team guy" and praised him for never quitting on his dream.
"He'd been looking for this moment for the longest time. Nothing better than getting to call him in my office and let him know he's been recalled," Rochester head coach Chris Taylor told theScore recently. "I could just tell on his face: It was the best thing that's ever been told to him in a long time."
Back in 2010, Smith was coming off a 21-goal, 129-PIM season with the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67s when the Blue Jackets drafted him at No. 34, an endorsement of his work ethic, combativeness, and offensive punch that ran counter to NHL Central Scouting's assessment of his standing within the class (the bureau rated him 73rd among eligible North American skaters). Smith's scoring chops never translated to the pros, and at the 2014 trade deadline Columbus dealt him to Tampa Bay, along with Jonathan Marchessault, for Dana Tyrell and Matt Taormina.
After his entry-level contract expired the following year, Smith bounced between a few farm clubs - Boston and Philadelphia's AHL affiliates; Carolina's outpost in the ECHL - before latching on with Rochester in 2017. Mentioning his limited production there across the past three seasons (four goals and 15 points in 135 games) prompts Taylor to counter, "I wouldn't go off his stats too much." His coaches and teammates appreciate that he asserts his presence on the ice, believing that his physicality and dogged forechecking create space and scoring chances for his linemates. He fights, too, 78 times in all as a pro.
Smith's breakthrough call-up came a month after Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak elbowed Buffalo's Rasmus Dahlin in the face and was suspended two games. At Tampa Bay's morning skate on Dec. 31, fellow blue-liner Luke Schenn pulled Cernak aside for a quick tutorial on how to fight, contingency training in case the likes of Smith sought retribution.
Cernak said Schenn was showing him some pointers on squaring up. Schenn has 51 fights under his belt in his pro career. pic.twitter.com/5fAa4V3n7O
In Buffalo that night, it wasn't Cernak but Schenn himself who jawed with Smith after a whistle eight seconds into the second period, sparking a gloves-off tussle that the linesmen hurriedly broke up. They were assessed offsetting roughing minors, one of two contributions to the stat sheet that Smith managed in his four shifts. Seconds after Smith and Schenn's penalties expired, Sabres winger Marcus Johansson ripped a wrister past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Smith skated in from the neutral zone to join the celebration.
His final line: 1:26 TOI, 2 PIM, +1 for his career.
"I wasn't sure how much ice I was going to get, but I just knew that I had to try to do something," Smith said. "Tried stirring some things up."
Two days later, the Sabres sent a fourth-round pick to the Flames for Michael Frolik, and they reassigned Smith to the AHL on Jan. 6, at which point Taylor remembers him returning to Rochester with a certain glow. Even that short stay enabled him to skate in two more pregame warmups, amass some practice time, and elevate his confidence noticeably. Everything about his demeanor suggested he'd reoriented his mindset, Taylor said: "He got that one taste, he wants that taste again."
If Smith is to clamber back to the NHL, the job at hand is to sign a new deal when he enters free agency this offseason. He said there's no team with which he'd rather be affiliated than Buffalo; he appreciates the chances the Sabres have given him, and in line with the feedback they provided, his summer plans center on working to improve his skill and his foot speed, things he's consistently had to do since his graduation from junior. Remaining employed in an evolving game means keeping up with the rate of change, and with the flow of play.
Dalton Smith (left) and Erik Cernak battle on Dec. 31. Bill Wippert / NHL / Getty Images
Before Taylor moved into coaching, he was a point-per-game caliber center in the minors for much of the 1990s and 2000s, including for nine seasons with the Americans. One of Taylor's first Rochester teammates was Eric Boulton, a heavyweight winger - and former ninth-round draft pick - who scored four points and added 276 PIM in 1999-00, his final AHL season. Boulton stuck in the NHL at age 24 and went on to play 654 games. Smith is three years older, and enforcing is a disappearing role, but his coach sees symmetry there, having watched Smith strive for a while now to shore up his shortcomings.
"You hope Dalton can follow that same path," Taylor said. "Age doesn't matter to me. It's what you're doing to try to get better, and he is getting better."
In that pursuit, he has a peer in Cayden Primeau, the rookie Canadiens prospect who had a .908 save percentage with the AHL Laval Rocket this season, and who turned away 67 of 72 shots during two relief appearances for Montreal back in December. Smith, who debuted in the NHL 26 days after Primeau, lauded his cousin for what he's already accomplished and said he relished contributing, those few weeks later, to such a cool shared family experience.
Rochester was second in the AHL's North Division, seven points ahead of Laval and six behind the Belleville Senators, when the schedule halted on March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The subsequent cancellation of the season, combined with Buffalo's exclusion from the NHL's 24-team playoff format, made for a disappointing yet understandable end to Smith's 2019-20. Prioritizing health and safety was the right call, he said. Incidentally, 86 seconds - plus two minutes in the box - was all his year required to be special.
"It's a phone call I've been wanting to make to my dad for a very long time," Smith said, reflecting on his call-up. "It just leaves me even more hungry to hopefully do it again."
Hockey trailblazer Willie O'Ree, who became the first black man to play in the NHL in 1958, is troubled by the death of George Floyd and the violent confrontations between police and protestors that have followed in the United States.
"I'm 84 years old and didn't think I'd witness some of the stuff that's going on, but this dates back to the slavery age," O'Ree told The Canadian Press.
"It's very discouraging to see what's going on now."
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed last week in Minneapolis while in police custody. The video of his death circulated on social media, sparking protests across the U.S. that have been met with police force in some cities.
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, whose knee was on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The first charge was upgraded to second-degree murder Wednesday, and the three other officers involved in Floyd's death were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. All four officers were fired last week.
"It's just a tragedy that every time an unarmed black man is killed there's really nothing done about it at that particular time," O'Ree said.
"It's like you're here today and gone tomorrow. Your life is just snuffed."
Current and former NHL players including Evander Kane and Akim Aliu, who are part of the small minority of black men to have played in the league, have used their platforms to denounce racism and police injustice while calling for further education and discussion on the issue.
"I think it starts with educating yourself," Aliu said. "Find a way. It's 2020, just look at the history, look at what our ancestors have been through to get to where we are now."
O'Ree has been the NHL's diversity ambassador for over two decades. He's also the league's director of youth development under the Hockey Is For Everyone banner.
General manager Kyle Dubas understands there's a lot more that the Toronto Maple Leafs can and should do to help combat systemic racism.
"What the last week has shown us is that merely living a good life yourself and treating other people well yourself ... that's great, but it's not quite good enough in order to enact change in the greater swaths of society," Dubas said Wednesday on Sportsnet's "In Conversation with Ron MacLean."
"I think what we've learned, especially in the last number of days, is that with the Maple Leafs and with our players and with our staff ... we need to be doing more on the anti-racism side of things. Not only with our statements and our words and our tweets and what we put out there but with our actions, and we know that people will be watching us and holding us accountable in that regard."
Dubas added, "I won't hide it, it is reactionary rather than being proactive, which I certainly wish we were. And that's on me ... that we are reacting versus having a plan in place, and it's something that we will be better at as we move ahead."
The 34-year-old believes the onus ultimately falls on him to guide his players and staff in the right direction by providing leadership, education, and proper resources.
"What we're trying to do now is build out a proper protocol where we can educate our entire organization - meaning the Leafs - on what organizations they can get involved with if they want ... and how we can help them moving forward as well as what organizations can help best educate our group," he said.
Dubas is happy with what he's seen so far from his players and staff, many of whom have already reached out to see how they can help.
"One of the most positive movements that we've seen internally ... is that our players and our staff have all been reaching out and asking us what they can actually do rather than what they can say," Dubas said.
He continued, "In the last couple of days, as our players and our staff have asked what more can we do, we've begun to investigate different groups in Toronto, in Canada, and in the United States that our people can be involved with, whether it's donating their time, donating their platform and visibility to those different groups, or financial activism."
Former NHL goaltender Kevin Weekes believes the league can make progress with the multitude of racial issues it faces.
"I want to see people be real - you're real about other things - be real," Weekes said on the "ESPN on Ice with Wyshynski and Kaplan" podcast. "'Hey, you know what? This is a problem,' 'Hey, you know what? We do have qualified women, we do have qualified transgender people, we do have qualified people of color.'"
"... Let's just put the best people in the position," he continued.
"If you have knuckleheads, get them outta there," he added. "Root them out. You're gone. It's a three-year ban, it's a lifetime ban as a managerial person or coach. You're out. Bye. ... If you're a fan (who's racist)? Bye."
Weekes, who spent 11 seasons in the NHL, pointed to some personal experiences to highlight racial issues in hockey.
"If you're at your place of work, and I've had this numerous times, and ironically Philly being one of them - and I love Philly - but I've had this a lot of times. Why are you cheering for Allen Iverson? You're booing Donovan McNabb, but you're still cheering for him. But you're cheering for Allen Iverson, but now you're yelling racial epitaphs at me behind the bench?" Weekes said. "And then you're gonna come after Wayne Simmonds comes and you're gonna cheer for Wayne Simmonds?"
"As a black goalie specifically - and a lot of times, people in Canada will say, 'Oh, well that's an American problem' - they couldn't be any further from the truth," he said.
The now 45-year-old also said he would often be racially profiled on his way to the rink in Canada. He estimates it happened a "minimum 20 times."
"I'd have my goalie pads, and my two sticks, and my goalie bag, and next thing you know, cops pull me over. 'Hey, is this your vehicle? Can we see the license and registration?'" he said.
Weekes became the first black NHL analyst after retiring from the league in 2009. He currently works for the NHL Network.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid released a statement Wednesday condemning racism and vowing to educate himself and initiate societal change in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody.
"Like everyone else, I watched the horror of George Floyd's murder and felt helpless and sick to my stomach," McDavid said. "And as I have watched the many protests against racism and social injustice that have been taking place around the world, I realize that I need to do more to educate myself ... that I need to learn more about the history of racism in our countries and to listen to the voices and the perspectives of the black community and other racial minorities to try and understand how I can help to affect positive change going forward.
"As a young white male and pro athlete, I recognize that we live a very privileged life. I believe that the time is now for all of us to get out of our comfort zones, to not sit idly on the sidelines, and to be part of the solution to ensure we end racism in our society."
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes while Floyd was handcuffed on the ground.
McDavid is the latest NHL star to speak out against racial injustice amid nationwide protests over the killing of Floyd. Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby also released a statement Wednesday, saying what happened to Floyd "cannot be ignored."
