Welcome to Vancouver SportsNet’s Question Period, I am your host Jennifer Swanson. Today’s guest is local favourite and captain of the Vancouver Whalers…. Dave Smith. On today’s show I will be asking Dave a lot of personal questions of his experience with the Whalers so far this season and what he is looking forward to seeing in the future. I am going to start you off with a difficult yet personal question for you.

How did it feel that you were a leading contributor to the Whalers in points and was requested to move down to the second line?

To be honest at the beginning I was shocked, confused and kind of angry. Let me be honest here that was my first initial reaction because what else could I have thought. Games were being won, there was production coming from our 1st and 3rd lines while our second just had not clicked yet. You begin to wonder what did I do wrong and why me and it took its toll on my mind set since coming off as a first round pick being told how valuable you are to the team, given the maximum contract possible in the NWJHL. It took its toll on me, I kind of felt that I was not a fit for the team and I did not know what to do. Thoughts began to race through my head wondering why on earth spend a 1st round pick on me if you are wanting me to slide down a line. I was a mess since it just did not make sense to me.

So what did you do next?

There was only one thing I could do to be honest and I was lucky enough to be catching a Seattle Mariners baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates where I was introduced to the stadium audience as a special guest in the stands. I then asked an usher to go visit both of the team benches and when I finally made it to the Pirates bench I met up with Travis Snider, a former Toronto Blue Jay top prospect who was given a bad experience in Toronto and I wanted to get some advice on how he handled his situation in Toronto looking to find a way to get out of my funk.


Smith and Snider deep in conversation

So what did he tell you?

He explained to me about his career up and downs with the Blue Jays being a top prospect then all of a sudden being the go to guy in the organization as the next best thing in the system. He told me that it felt confusing that the Jays told him all the right things and then confused him by essentially making him feel unwanted and not a part of the team and then all of a sudden other prospects were getting ahead of him in the depth chart and he was then bound to split the season with Las Vegas and the Blue Jays.

So what did you do with the advice he gave you?

I took it to heart and then accepted the single line demotion in good for the team. Knowing I could be a 2nd line guy on a championship caliber team with the hopes of returning to the top line down the road, or I could sit and pout and maybe drive my manager to deal me off to a team that has been doing extremely terrible and getting my top line minutes. I figured if I could do my part on the second line we could be extra dangerous and then I began to think that not all captains have to play on the top line, even former Tampa Bay Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk was a fourth line guy, so if he could handle that then I can easily handle this. So I accepted the change in pace thinking it was for the good of the team and my destiny in the SHL can be handled at a later time, but for now the goal is to have a solid season in Vancouver and impress scouts with my overall game and my leadership. Not every day you hear “we want him for our captain without a regular season game.

So what has happened since then?

Well my game has picked up a bit and I am contributing to the team in many ways. I have gotten over the funk and I am once again looking forward to our games in the future wanting to do my part for this squad. So, I would apologize to them for my extended period of quietness and had to deal with this issue privately. Knowing I don’t get to hear my name called in the starting line-up but hoping that I can hoist the Four Star Cup over my head and pass it along to my team mates around the Rogers Arena.

Okay, so you are out of the funk and the Whalers also just signed big time free agent Shayne “dreads” Steele… How did that make you feel and what are you expecting from him?

I felt awesome that my GM is doing everything possible to bring us to glory that he possibly can. These are the moments that make everything exciting since we needed a little extra help since Cerilli and Valentine could not handle the fort all on by themselves adding Steele just makes our defence core even scarier. I honestly think with his addition to our team we are not far off our dream of taking the Four Star Cup. Just look at his first game with us, he was brilliant and he started the play that lead to my 15th goal of the season, while I was on the bench watching him play I was impressed as hell thanking God he is on my team and not on the opposition. His addition brought some extra fresh air to the team and brought in that extra will to keep pushing forward to that goal and the confidence to believe in ourselves that we can actually do it.

What am I expecting out of Steele…Like every other Whaler, nothing but the best in game and out of game. Have you seen the leaderboards… look what team is pretty much doing a lot of domination on them… The Whalers are and adding Steele to the lineup I hope to see his name start creeping up on them soon too!

Last question for today…. Do you have any advice for the future who also may get in this kind of funk, hit their low points in morale and just feel like they do not belong.

The best advice is to find someone to talk it out with, I had a great GM who talked me through my concerns and Snider who helped me out with some amazing advice. I can honestly say that is the best solution is to just talk about it in private without blowing everything out of the locker room and mainstream for all to see. I would rather be sitting on the second line compared to sitting in the press conference because of a suspension. Some more advice would be to just enjoy the game and keep having fun, when this changes from fun to a job that is where the passion dies out and that is one thing I can say is that the fire is still there and I want victory. So I hope that I can keep this up and help my team to glory.. No matter what and that is the best advice I can give.

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C - Kenji Yoshimura   Kenji Yoshimura Updates

Dave Smith | 77 | | D | LA Panthers | Vancouver Whalers | Hall of Fame
Asbjørn Alexandersen | 47 | RW | Texas Renegades  | Detroit Falcons
Alek Koivu | 71 | D | Winnipeg Jets | Colorado Mammoths
Kenji Yoshimura | 88 | C | Los Angeles Panthers | Anchorage Armada

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Credit to Wasty and Steelhead for the sigs - thanks dudes!

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Phil.B bringing in this stud. Good read man.

Thank you OrbitingDeath! <3

Thanks for the mention.

I'm lucky to be playing with you guys.

pffft...i brought steele to Van.
phil cant smooth talk like me

Originally posted by Alex@Oct 11 2012, 07:55 PM
pffft...i brought steele to Van.
phil cant smooth talk like me

You may be 'right'... but Phil at the end of the day gets the credit as the GM .. doesn't that suck lol

C - Kenji Yoshimura   Kenji Yoshimura Updates

Dave Smith | 77 | | D | LA Panthers | Vancouver Whalers | Hall of Fame
Asbjørn Alexandersen | 47 | RW | Texas Renegades  | Detroit Falcons
Alek Koivu | 71 | D | Winnipeg Jets | Colorado Mammoths
Kenji Yoshimura | 88 | C | Los Angeles Panthers | Anchorage Armada

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Credit to Wasty and Steelhead for the sigs - thanks dudes!

1

I can feed ya the disk on the second line almost as good as those folks up there on the first...ha ha almost.

Glad to see yur not upset. Now lets get some goals...

Bringing The Pain To A Rink Near You

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