Coyotes' Mike Smith: Gets starting nod for Thursday's contest

Smith will guard the goal in Thursday's road game against the Panthers.

Analysis:

Smith hasn't been great of late, suffering three consecutive losses while posting an ugly 2.97 GAA over that span. To be fair, the 35-year-old netminder has also posted a solid .913 save percentage over his last three starts, so his struggles can largely be attributed to the lack of talent playing in front of him. He'll look to pick up his 19th win of the campaign in a decent road matchup with a Panthers team that's 16-17-3 at home this season.