FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 Will Smith has come back strong for the San Jose Sharks.<\/p>\n
In his first two games back since his Dec. 13 injury, Smith has goals in back-to-back contests. He\u2019s also back with best friend Macklin Celebrini on a line.<\/p>\n
Smith spoke to San Jose Hockey Now on Sunday, confirming the nature of his injury, his thoughts about Celebrini coming to his defense after he got hurt, Alex Wennberg\u2019s extension, the San Jose Sharks being in the playoff hunt, and more.<\/p>\n
Will Smith, on the nature of his injury:<\/p>\n
It was a shoulder injury, just kind of an awkward play there. It doesn\u2019t really happen that much when your arm\u2019s in the glass like that. It was just an awkward kind of placement on the glass with my shoulder. I kind of lost the puck, so I was reaching for it, then was kind of defenseless, and that\u2019s when you get hurt.<\/p>\n
Smith, on whether he noticed how severe the injury was or wasn\u2019t initially:<\/p>\n
When it happens, it happens so quickly, and you first just try to see the doctors and trainers. Then after that, I flew home and the next day was when I got the MRI and we made the plan from there. In the moment, you just kind of try to get through it.<\/p>\n
Smith, on Macklin Celebrini standing up for him following the play:<\/p>\n
It was huge. I think when someone takes a hit from someone and someone fights or goes over to say something, it shows how tight the group is and how much everyone cares for each other.<\/p>\n
Smith, on how often he\u2019s been sent that clip since his injury:<\/p>\n
(laughs) It\u2019s all over my TikTok.<\/p>\n
Smith, on the San Jose Sharks being in the playoff race as he returns:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s huge, it\u2019s super-exciting. Especially coming off last year, to be in the race and having games every night that truly means something in the standings, it\u2019s huge.<\/p>\n
Smith, on Celebrini being named to Team Canada:<\/p>\n
That\u2019s huge. I think being his age and being able to make the Olympic team with such big names on that team is pretty cool. Super-excited for him.<\/p>\n
Smith, on Alex Wennberg signing his extension:<\/p>\n
That was huge. We all love having him around. We were waiting for that to get done.<\/p>\n
Smith, on Celebrini being at the top of NHL scoring:<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t surprise me, to be honest. I think we all knew how good he was, and being able to put up those points at this stage is pretty cool.<\/p>\n
Smith, on what he\u2019s observed of the San Jose Sharks since being out with an injury:<\/p>\n
I think the game looks a lot easier when you\u2019re up top. Just trying to take something from every guy and putting some of that into your own game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 Will Smith has come back strong for the San Jose Sharks. In his first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5631,58,5,402,501,4,168,169,507],"class_list":{"0":"post-418265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alex-wennberg","9":"tag-featured","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-injury","12":"tag-macklin-celebrini","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-san-jose-sharks","15":"tag-sjhn","16":"tag-will-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115928751413326575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}