Smotherman, now in his fifth professional season after spending time in the Atlanta and Columbus systems, joined the Boston Bruins late this summer as a training camp invite before eventually settling in Rhode Island with an American Hockey League contract. For most, disappointment might set in. Then again, Jordan isn’t like most. While Boston is the ultimate dream, it’s tough to imagine a much better situation than Providence.
Now a big-bodied 24-year-old winger, Jordan was just a kid when his family moved to Westborough, Mass., from Binghamton, N.Y, a dozen years ago. Immediately, he started skating regularly and playing games in nearby Marlborough at the New England Sports Center, also owned by Renfroe. Having been born in 1986, Jordan joined the '86 Minuteman Flames, coached by Mike Duquette.
As the years went by, the group of '86 kids grew into one of the best clubs of that age group in the northeast. After a few years, Duquette retired, leaving an opening for a new coach. Renfroe and Wes Tuttle, the building's facility manager, took over. Before long, the club won its first tournament championship. But, more importantly, it was the beginning of a significant bond between Larue and Jordan.
"The story that Wes and I always tell about Jordan," remembered Renfroe, "was right here [in Marlborough], one of those summer games. He came down the left wing, crossed the blue line, took a shot and hit the goalie. When he was a 16-year-old, he had a booming shot, which scared most goalies. The second time he came down, he took the same shot and the goalie moved out of the net and he scored. That just about tells it all. He was unbelievable."
Story after story, Renfroe's smile grew wider at the mention of Smotherman. It’s no secret that in decades of coaching, Jordan continues to stand out, not only as one of Larue's most prized players, but also one of his favorite people. He coached both Smotherman brothers in their formative years, first Zack, Jordan's elder by three years, before watching over Jordan every summer from the age of 15 to 19.
Zack never went on to play hockey after high school. As for Jordan, his is a story that can’t be read on a stat sheet.
Jordan left home as that large-framed, shot-launching 16-year-old attempting to try his luck in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League as a member of the Quebec Remparts. There, he left the name Smotherman behind and became Jordan LaVallee, taking on his mother Maureen’s French Canadian maiden name as a way of better connecting with the Canadian fanbase. It worked. Jordan became a fan-favorite with the Remparts, scoring 40 goals in his third junior season in 2004-05, before then leading Quebec to the 2006 Memorial Cup championship.
Already a 2005 draft pick by the Thrashers, taken 116th overall in the fourth round, Jordan entered the pro game during the 2006-07 season, quickly becoming a key contributor for the perennially popular Chicago Wolves. As a 20-year-old rookie, Jordan scored 16 goals during the regular season and added another seven throughout Chicago’s deep playoff run. A slump-less sophomore season brought another 20 goals, a first career NHL call-up to Atlanta and yet another championship, the Calder Cup.
Jordan, who eventually hyphenated his last name to LaVallee-Smotherman with the Wolves, felt awfully good about his chances at making Atlanta following his latest title run, but the 2008-09 season brought another year in Chicago. That, however, proved to be the least of his concerns.
In December of 2008 Jordan’s father, Bill, passed away very suddenly. He and Maureen were home watching television one night, Bill complained of dizziness and, moments later, he was gone. Doctors came to find that he had a blood clot in his leg that dislodged.
Jordan, who was quite close with his father, was devastated. He was out driving when he received the call and heartbreaking news and had to pull his car over, prompting strangers to stop and see if he was okay. On the outside, thanks to the patience and support of the Wolves organization, perhaps he was. But, on the inside, Jordan was unraveling.
"The second half of the season, I kind of buried all of my emotions into hockey,"recalled Smotherman. "That became my safe zone. So, the second half of that season I actually was producing really well and played really hard because I was kind of masking my feelings for what was going on through my game and taking a lot of my aggression out on it. I got in seven or eight fights my last 10 games. I put all of that stuff inside, and throughout the course of the summer and certainly the beginning of the fall, it started to come out in negative ways."
On October 8, 2009, the Thrashers traded Jordan to the Blue Jackets in return for future considerations. He was promptly assigned to Syracuse, where his mental state struggled to improve.
"I was having some trouble sleeping, I was having some overall attitude issues, I was getting down on myself because I wasn’t playing as well as I should have been, and that snowballed into a huge disaster of the first 40 games of the season," said Smotherman. "Then, my brother actually set me up with one of his best friends from college, Greg Chertok. He’s a sports psychologist. I started talking with him probably late-December, early-January.
"It started as a broad focus. 'What kind of player are you? When you were successful, what were you doing?' We started with big goals, like being first on the puck and finishing all my hits, focusing shift-to-shift, things like that," he detailed. "And, then, once those things started to come back naturally, we narrowed in on smaller things, like every time you touch the puck, make sure you do something with it. You make a play, you complete the play, and little things like that. By the last 20 games of the season, I was a point-per-game guy again and started turning things around."
Smotherman finished last season with 10 goals and 32 points in 78 games for the Crunch, totals that would amaze those who knew his story, yet still not production that could convince any club to hand over an NHL deal during the 2010 offseason. So, as he did with his sports psychologist, Jordan made a goal. In fact, it was the same goal he had in mind when rumors start to swirl in Atlanta that he might be expendable nearly a year earlier.
That goal was a return home.
Renfroe, who bought the P-Bruins in 2006, had stayed in touch with the Smotherman family since the boys played for the Flames several years earlier, and he continued to see Jordan in the summers when he'd return home to train at the New England Sports Center. So, when Jordan tasked his agent with making Boston his new destination, Larue was happy to lend his support.
"I was an advocate," said Renfroe. "I don't know what effect it had because Boston has to make their decisions and [Bruins General Manager] Peter Chiarelli has to make the decisions. I obviously was an advocate, but I wouldn't credit me with having any effect there. I think Jordan is the one who made it happen.”
Regardless of who gets the credit, the first bricks along the road to Boston are now in place. Smotherman, no longer with LaVallee on his jersey as a homage to his roots, is home in a place where he’s surrounded by emotion and familiarity. The owner of his new team is his former coach and friend. He’s playing for the top affiliate of his favorite NHL club. He’s mere minutes rather than hours from family. And, perhaps the most special of all, he'll be playing in one of the buildings where he last saw his father alive.
Back on November 7, 2008, Chicago bested Providence 4-1 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. Jordan had an assist in front of his family watching from the stands. His parents followed on to watch the club in Manchester and, then, as the team continued to Rochester, Jordan hugged his dad and said goodbye. With Bill passing away just weeks later, he had no idea that it was for the last time.
Now, with the P-Bruins' season only days away, Jordan walks around the locker room continuing to outline his goals for success, and he does so with a little prayer card and picture of his dad in hand. When Providence opens the season on Friday against Springfield, he expects his mother and brother to be there watching. Wherever his father is, he'll no doubt be watching too.
