Reilly Smith On Toucher & Rich: Bruins Where They Want To Be -- In Playoff Hunt
It certainly hasn't been a perfect season for the Boston Bruins thus far, but considering the team has been able to get itself into a playoff spot prior to Thanksgiving, the team has accomplished an important goal through the first two months.
"When you're in the playoff hunt at Thanksgiving, it seems like there's not too much shuffling in the standings after that," Smith said. "We'd obviously like to have a couple more points from this past weekend, but we're still in that contention where we want to be."
Part of what's made it so difficult this season has been the injuries that just keep piling up. Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, Torey Krug, Chris Kelly, Kevan Miller and Brad Marchand have all missed time, making it challenging to find consistency. Yet with a 13-9-1 record, the B's have managed to stay afloat amid all the injuries.
"I think we're playing pretty good hockey right now," Smith said. "Our games are getting better and we're competing a little better. We're definitely heading in the right direction right now, but it really doesn't matter unless you get those two points at the end of the night. So that's our main focus right now."
On Monday night against Pittsburgh, the Bruins twice put the puck in the net on plays that were ruled to not be goals. After the replay reviews, head coach Claude Julien was visibly upset, as his team has seemingly been on the wrong end of every one of those close calls this year.
The guys asked Smith if he noticed whether or not the coach was more upset than usual.
"Well, I think he's always a little bit mad at the refs. So we've just gotten used to that," Smith said. "I haven't seen too much game tape from [Julien's playing days], but I hear he was a pretty hard-nosed defenseman. I wouldn't want to be on the other end of when he gets a little bit heated on the bench."
Smith was asked about the Dalton Prout-Milan Lucic incident, and though Smith said it's likely that there was some violation of the code of respect, he admitted that he's not exactly an expert when it comes to fighting.
"I'm not exactly known for dropping my gloves too often, as they're sewn onto my hands pretty good," Smith said. "So I don't have to worry about that stuff too often."
Smith was also asked about his shift that he spent working at the Bruins pro shop. He bragged that the Smith jerseys were selling a whole lot faster than the Marchand jerseys.
"My job was selling a bunch of the jerseys. 18's were flying off the shelf," Smith bragged. "I may have been giving a promotional offer for autographing each one someone would buy, so that might have been a little bit of the reason why they were selling so quickly. But I did realize that there were an abundance of 63's that weren't really going anywhere.
"That was the problem," Smith added. "Everyone was looking for smalls and extra smalls, but they were all being used during the games."
Listen to the full interview below!
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