GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Once he started training this summer, Brendan Smith never had any doubts that he would make it back to the Rangers this season. But the day he got the news that the Rangers were sending him down to Hartford? No, he wasn’t so confident then.
“That period when I was going through that whole waiver [process], I definitely had a lot of doubts,’’ Smith said of clearing waivers and then being demoted to Hartford last February. “I doubted myself. I thought maybe at times I couldn’t do it anymore.’’
Things got worse a month later when the defenseman broke his hand fighting Hartford teammate Vinni Lettieri in practice, ending Smith's season.