Even though the Coyotes reacted badly following their season-ending defeat on Tuesday, some folks were willing to accept their apologies. The circumstances — Dustin Brown nailing Michal Rozsival, Dustin Penner scoring seconds later, some egregious officiating throughout — were enough to make Phoenix’s blood boil.
The players reacted accordingly, felt bad about it, and wanted to make amends.
But while some, like Shane Doan, apologized for their conduct, goalie Mike Smith went the other way.
“I don’t regret anything I said,” Smith told the Arizona Republic. “It needed to be addressed. We move on. We deal with what we’ve said to the media and to you guys.
“I’ve been honest all season long, and I’m not going to change because a game put us out.”
Here’s what Smith said, in case you missed it.
“The calls that were made and not made down the stretch, that just saps the life out of you. They said we’re complaining a lot about calls, but we’re complaining because they’re calls that have to be made in these games.”
And…
“When Brown gets away with something like that after the whistle — knee on knee, that’s a dangerous play. If Raffi Torres gets 25 games for his hit during the play, this guy should be done forever.”
To be fair, Smith did make a minor alternation to his comment about Brown. While he still thinks it was a “dirty hit” and that “a penalty should’ve been called,” he also added “obviously, a lifetime ban is little much.”
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