Smith has not taken a penalty in his past seven games, which Blashill believes might be affecting his physicality.
“Certainly, my message hasn’t been to take away the physical play,” Blashill said. “It’s been to play from whistle to whistle and then get out of the scrums. He was in a lot of scrums, and he was taking some penalties. We want him to stay away from the hookings and the holdings. Those aren’t intimidating penalties.
“I think there’s moments where he’s played good. I think he’s done a really good job in the offensive zone.