re smiths birthday goal was leafs go all the way in article c wty u mcs anl gov mwm aps anl gov michael w mcdowell writes in article kl undergrad math uwaterloo ca kwk chow descartes uwaterloo ca kevin c writes thanks for the goals by steve smith i don t see why more people don t blame grant fuhr for the goal that smith put in his own net it s common to play the puck back to your own goalie when deep in your own end and under little or no pressure from the offensive team if fuhr had been in position the puck would have never crossed the line from this account it doesn t sound like you even saw the goal mike smith came out from behind his own net and fired a breakout pass that hit fuhr in the back of the leg fuhr was backing up at the time and never saw what happened the puck went straight off fuhr s leg and into the net fuhr never had a chance there was no play back to the goaltender in fact perry berezan of calgary had just dumped it in and smith was retrieving it it was unfortunate that it happened smith is a nice guy and was only a rookie at the time and on his birthday too but all the blame lies with him starting in pee wee coaches tell players never to make a cross ice pass in front of their own net too much chance of having it intercepted or hitting the goaltender or whatever and to the people who say that smith cost the oilers the series i can only say that he certainly didn t cause the team to lose the other three games there was no reason for a powerhouse team like edmonton to be tied late in the third period of the th game of the second round everybody on the team has to take responsibility for them even being in that situation alan
