Steve Smith

Almost every NHL coach will use the old cliché “Win as a team, lose as a team” to emphasize how games should never be credited or pinned on any one individual player.

After the upset loss in the 1986 playoffs by their old rivals, the Calgary Flames, Oilers coach and general manager Glen Sather publicly berated his team's defence. Fans, however, put the blame on rookie defenceman Steve Smith.

Smith, who had worked his way into the team’s defensive rotation, and performed well in 55 games during the 1985-86 season,  got into six of the team’s playoff games that spring. Number six is one he would like to forget. With the score tied late in the third period of the deciding seventh game of the Battle of Alberta, Smith saw his errant pass bounce off Oilers’ goaltender Grant Fuhr and into his own net. Smith was in tears as he, and everyone in the stands, knew that the Oilers could not recover, and the team’s dream of taking home three Stanley Cups in a row had slipped away. Calgary had finally won a Battle of Alberta series, and would later reach the Stanley Cup finals, only to lose to the Montréal Canadiens.

It would have been easy for a young defender to be shattered by the event; instead, Smith persevered and became one of the key players of the team’s drive for three more Cups in 1987, 1988 and 1990. Smith best year came in 1987-88, when he scored 12 goals, added 43 assists, and received 286 penalty minutes. Smith proved he was a tough customer, and the disastrous goal was nothing more than a fluke.

By the early 1990s, the League recognized Smith as one of the top defencemen in the NHL. He was selected to the 1991 Canada Cup-winning national team and played in the NHL All-Star Game that same year. Later in 1991, the Oilers traded Smith to the Chicago Blackhawks where he would play a key role in leading the Hawks to their first Stanley Cup final since the 1970s. That year’s playoffs, Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins swept the Blackhawks.

Smith remained with the Hawks until 1997, when injuries forced him out of the game. Smith's retirement was short, and in 1998 he got himself back into shape and played parts of three seasons with the Calgary Flames before he succumbed to age and nagging injuries. Smith left the game in 2000 with 375 points and 2,139 penalty minutes in 804 career NHL games.

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