Tampa Bay Lightning
On February 26, 2008 Mike was involved in one of 3 major deals on Trade Deadline Day 2008. The other two involved Brian Campbell and Marian Hossa moving. In this deal though, Smitty was dealt to Tampa from Dallas along with Jussi Jokinen, Jeff Halpern and a 4th round draft pick for Johan Holmqvist and Brad Richards. Mike was the main piece heading to Tampa, as they saw a bright future ahead for him. Unfortunately that bright future did not come until the end of his time with the Lightning, as he had just 30 combined wins over the remainder of the 2007-08 season and the next 2 seasons. His record over those 2 and a half years was not that great with 30 wins, 46 losses and 16 OT losses. Although in his defense, Tampa had one of the worst defensive cores in the league those years and did not get it turned around until closer to Mike's departure from the team. During this 2 and a half year stretch Smitty suffered another concussion in the 2008-09 season, which made him miss about the 2nd half of the year. At no point during these tough times was he ever given the reigns and starting job for sure, as he had to compete with both Antero Nittymaki and Dan Ellis for playing time. This may have played a number on his confidence, but like he;d done many time before he picked himself off and had a great start to the 2010-11 season with a 10-5-0 record. Unfortunately just when it looked like things were turning around, Mike was dealt another blow, as he suffered a knee injury keeping him out of action for 2 months. This forced Tampa GM Steve Yzerman to go out and acquire Dwayne Roloson to fill in for Mike. Roloson played so well though, that the Lightning sutck with him. They even sent Mike down to the minors in Febuary on a conditioning basis, and he cleared waivers twice! He was recalled late in the year, and finished strong with going 3-1-1 in 5 games he started while the Lightning rested Roloson for the playoffs. During these 2011 playoffs was when the Phoenix Coyotes took notice of Smitty. Mike played in 3 games in which Dwayne Roloson was pulled, even leading his team to a dramatic 3 goal comeback in one of the games against Boston. He had a fantastic 1.00 GAA and a .958 save percentage during these 3 appearances. During the off season though, him and the Lightning parted ways as on July 1st Tampa signed Mathieu Garon and that's when we knew Mike would not be returning to Tampa in the fall. Mike was blamed by many Lightning fans for the team's faliure during his first 3 seasons, but this was an unfair assessment as the team was in rebuilding mode and had one of the worst blue line's in the league. Nevertheless, Lightning management thought it was time to part ways. First the Stars, now the Lightning gave up on him; third time's a charm right?