{coyotes} Biron on Smith's injury: 'It feels like you're trapped'

ESPN Fantasy Baseball / Yahoo Fantasy Baseball

Former NHL goalie Martin Biron said he closed his eyes and turned his chair as soon as Phoenix Coyotes goalie Mike Smith went down with his knee injury Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

Smith missed the game Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins and is listed as day-to-day. He is expected to also miss the game Thursday at Prudential Center against the New Jersey Devils.

"I know the feeling of being trapped," Biron said. "That's what it feels like. It feels like you're being trapped and your body has nowhere to go. Lucky for me, I've never had that popping feeling in the knee, hip or ankle that makes you feel that pain and have that reaction. Mike Smith is a tough guy, and when he was rolling around like that, I just couldn't bear to watch."

Biron was working the game as part of the MSG Network's New York Rangers broadcast team. He said he immediately knew what happened to Smith when Rangers center Derick Brassard fell on him, and the first thing he thought of was when Hall of Fame goalie Grant Fuhr sustained a knee injury in the 1996 Stanley Cup Playoffs after Nick Kypreos fell on top of him. Chris Pronger checked Kypreos into Fuhr, whose knee buckled upon impact.

"If you look closely at it, his left leg gives the old swing from underneath and releases, but his right leg has a little bit like a stutter step in that it's supposed to go, stops and then releases after," Biron said. "I've had that feeling before where you can't move and then you go, 'Thank goodness everything is OK,' but unfortunately, it wasn't that for him. You look at both legs, the way they release, and the right one just has that subtle little hesitation or pause, because the leg couldn't keep going in the normal fashion, something had to give."

Biron noted that Smith's injury was a fluke because, as he said, nine times out of 10 a goalie will get hit and fall backwards only to have his legs swing out from under him without any issues. He doesn't know why that didn't happen for Smith.

"There is that time when your skate blade might be caught in a rut and it doesn't release, or you're leaning in such a way that your body is not able to get your leg to kick out," Biron said. "If you saw the injury Buffalo goalie Jhonas Enroth suffered against Montreal 10 days ago, that was a freak thing. He gets run, his body kind of gives, but his right skate looks like it's right against the post and instead of moving backward freely to release the point of impact and to absorb the impact, it gets caught on the post for like a quarter of a second. That probably sent his leg and knee into a bit of a twirk, and there's a knee sprain right there. It doesn't take much, especially with the pressure you put on your hips and knees."

CBS Sports Fantasy Baseball / RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit 2014.

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