Calgary Flames: New Goalie Mike Smith Top Five Best Moments

The Calgary Flames are making some big moves this off-season, one being acquiring goaltender Mike Smith. Let’s check out the top five best moments of his NHL career.

The Calgary Flames are showing that they’re ready for cup contention. With GM Brad Treliving making some big moves this off-season, one being the acquisition of Mike Smith from the Arizona Coyotes, this rebuild is basically over. It’s time for contention.

Now with each new Flame coming into the picture, we might not know too much about them. Who really is Mike Smith? I know a lot of Flames fans weren’t too pleased with this move, with him being 35 years old and not exactly having the best contract, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt!

And let’s look at the positives.

Sometimes players make incredible moves that make highlight reels for decades. Or, you know, sometimes there’s things like this:

That’s a big mishap. Ouch. But again, let’s look at the positives! We did a ‘Top Five Kris Versteeg Moments‘ and that was a lot of fun and people seemed to enjoy that. So I decided to do one for all the new members of the Calgary Flames. Today, let’s look at Mike Smith’s top five best moments. Spoiler alert: There isn’t as much dancing and singing as Kris Versteeg’s had.

Number Five: Shading his former team

Calgary Flames

Like we know, Smith was traded to Calgary from the Coyotes. A few weeks ago, after the trade, Smith appeared on the Sportsnet 960 segment, the Big Show with Rob Kerr. He decided to not be… the nicest to his former team.

Of course as a Flames fan, I lived for it. It was like music to my ears. Can’t say the same for Coyotes fans, though.

"“How many people have already told you they can’t wait to see you fire it right up to Gaudreau?”Smith: “I’m really looking forward to passing to some of these guys who can actually score. Did I say that out loud?”"

He also at one point said that he believes he deserves to be on a team that wants to win and Calgary’s that time. Quite the shade at the Coyotes. Normally, something like this wouldn’t be enough to make our list. But as a Flames fan, I couldn’t leave it off.

Number Four: Messing with Sid the Kid

This moment was hilarious to me. In a little bit of a scrum in front of the net between the Arizona Coyotes and the Pittsburgh Penguins this past season, Mike Smith decides to mess with Sidney Crosby a little bit.

Wow, someone messes with Crosby and doesn’t get a penalty? That’s weird…

(I’m joking, please don’t come for me, Pens fans).

Number Three: Goalie Fight?

It’s not often that goalies get into fights. Normally they’re the one player out of the scrum. Especially if it’s also against a forward, too. But Mike Smith is somewhat known as a player who… sometimes has problems dealing with his anger (he slams his sticks A LOT. Chad Johnson’s grandma would never be able to tolerate that).

So sometimes, he may fight a forward on the opposing team…

Maybe we can see a goalie fight happen this season, hey?

Number Two: Scoring an NHL goal

In a regular season game against the Detroit Red Wings in 2013, Mike Smith did something that only ten goalies in NHL history have been able to do: score a goal in an NHL game. He’s also the last goaltender to score a goal. And it was an exciting buzzer-beater as well, the puck went into the net with just .1 second left of the game to help the Coyotes take this one 5-2.

It was also at on home-ice as well – something that only five goalies ever in NHL history have done.

I wonder how that goal would work for fantasy leagues. It’s extremely rare for goaltenders to score goals, especially from that far away. But that’s not the only time he’s scored a goal from 200 feet away…

Number One: Scoring Five Hole at ASG

This past All-Star Game would definitely be one to remember for Mike Smith. Before the actual game itself, there are fun little obstacle courses the players do called the Skills Competition. And of course, the goaltenders are involved in this.

Each team had a challenge called the four-line challenge, where they would attempt to score five-hole at four different areas in the ice, each time getting further away from the net. Smith took the furthest shot – 200 feet away from the net. And not only does he have to get it into the net, but he has to get it five-hole. Testing complete accuracy from the players.

Via NHL.com:

"“It was pretty cool,” Smith said. “The look on (Vancouver All-Star) Bo Horvat’s face when I looked over at him was pretty priceless. I’m sure mine was, too, to see it go in. But it was something I’ll remember for a long time. My family was here to witness it, too, so they can believe me … I didn’t really have a strategy, I was focused on just hitting the board, but it kind of curled in at the last second. I couldn’t believe it, to be honest. I was just as shocked as everyone else was. It was pretty flukey, but we’ll take it.”"

It’s funny since he’s already had an NHL goal before (like we mentioned earlier). So he’s had experience of shooting at the net from that far before, but this was much, much harder. Even forwards can’t get a goal like this. For a goalie to get a goal five-hole like this is probably a one in a million chance. I mean, maybe not. Someone pull the stats for this.

But in case you want to see it, here’s the video:

Next: Two Big RFAs Down, One More to Go

Maybe this season we’ll see Mike Smith become only the third goaltender in NHL history to get more than one goal. That’ll be a treat, hey Calgary Flames fans?