Mike Smith giving the Coyotes a fighting chance

The Arizona Coyotes sit in 28th place across the NHL, but without Mike Smith in goal, things would be much more bleak in the desert.

The 34-year-old is 7-4-4 on the season, and his latest start - a 44 save effort versus the Maple Leafs Thursday - continued a remarkable stretch of puck-stopping.

The Coyotes allow the most shots per game in the NHL (35.8), three more than the second-worst Islanders. The shot volume makes Smith one of the busiest goalies in the league on a game-to-game basis, but numbers suggest he doesn't care about some extra rubber coming his way.

Number of shots Mike Smith has faced in his last 11 full games: 46, 38, 45, 35, 27, 60, 33, 42, 42, 34, 45. He's stopped 93.6% of 'em too.

- Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) December 16, 2016

Yeah, he's in the zone.

Arizona's managed to win five of those Smith starts, mainly because of the netminder's efforts, as the Coyotes rank 28th in shots per game (28.3) and goals for (66).

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