Kalman: Smith's Statement Game Makes Julien's Words Prophetic
WILMINGTON – When Bruins coach Claude Julien doesn't feel like explaining a lineup move he has made, whether it works or not, he typically replies "it's called coaching."
Julien might now be able to add a second reply to his repertoire after the way one of his struggling forwards performed in the Bruins' 5-2 win on Thursday against the New York Islanders. Winger Reilly Smith scored one goal and added two assists, a breakout performance that Julien could've explained by saying "it's called magic."
After all, Julien made this prediction about Smith after the Bruins practiced on Wednesday.
"We need Reilly right now. And like there's always going to be somebody at one point that's struggling a little bit. And the sooner they find their game the better, especially with where we're at right now," Julien said. "But we've seen him go through that in the past. Yet when he does find his game, he's a pretty dangerous player and can make a lot of things happen. So hopefully this little break did him some good.
"He looked like he was shooting the puck well in practice today, so hopefully that carries into tomorrow."
Smith's shooting did carry into the Islanders game. Early in the contest, Julien wanted to keep rookie David Pastrnak away from the line centered by Islanders star John Tavares. So the coach put Smith with Milan Lucic and David Krejci. That line combined for eight points.
Smith might've been moved to that line for his experience and responsibility in the defensive zone, but he rewarded Julien's faith with his three-point game. Smith had gone 11 games without a goal. It was his second double-digit slump of the season, as he went 10 games without a goal through Dec. 4.
Smith now has 10 goals and 26 points in 49 games.
"No, they change," Smith said about his slumps. "But you know mainly the same thing is you just have to stick to being positive and getting out of them and keep putting pucks on net."
Sometimes positivity is hard to come by. The coach can influence that with how he treats a slumping player. In the past Julien has moved Smith down the lineup rather than up in frustrating times. Early this season when Smith was slumping, Julien called out the player for not being up to speed after a late start to training camp because of a contract dispute. Smith even briefly was on the fourth line earlier this season.
This time around Julien showed faith in the 23-year-old by placing him with Krejci and Lucic.
"Yeah and that's one thing that's special about this team is you get those opportunities. It's something I'm definitely grateful for," Smith said.
In his first full NHL season last year, Smith had 20 goals. But he struggled with consistency, as he went one stretch through mid-March without a goal for 15 games. Then he went nine more games without a goal later in the season. He rebounded in the playoffs to be one of the Bruins' most productive players with four goals.
Julien has seen Smith mature and learn how to handle adversity better the past couple seasons.
"Well I think he's a lot like probably a David Krejci type. Where David doesn't say much, but he's hard on himself. And I think I see Smitty a lot the same way," Julien said. "He doesn't say much, but I think deep down he's hard on himself, he expects a lot more. Sometimes that can be good, but sometimes it can hold you back a little bit. When you're hard on yourself, sometimes the negativity takes over the positive thinking and at the same time it puts more pressure on yourself. But the one thing we know is that he eventually finds his game back. This is only one and a half years in this league. He's still a young player that with experience will deal with those situations better along the way."
Julien might not be able to will Smith away from future slumps with more words. But his belief in Smith should help make sure the next couple months of 2015 don't resemble February and March from 2014. That should help the Bruins hang on to their spot in the playoffs.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.