EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — This might just be the best Mathew Barzal has felt on the ice in his NHL career.
The New York Islanders winger earned the NHL’s second star of the week, the league announced on Monday, after recording two goals and five assists (seven points) in two games against the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes before having to sit out Saturday’s victory against the Florida Panthers with an illness.
“It’s nice, I guess,” Barzal chuckled. “We played some good hockey over that two-game span so it’s cool to get recognition like that.”
The 26-year-old winger finds himself flirting with a point-per-game pace this season, posting 23 (seven goals, 16 assists) in 22 games. Seventeen of those points, though, have come in his last 13 games. The starting point of that stretch came on a Nov. 4 game against the Carolina Hurricanes in which he posted a goal and an assist which he labeled as “probably one of my favorite games in a couple years.”
The reason? An “eff-it” mindset that he’s been able to maintain for the last month — a month that he told amNewYork has been the best “probably in my career.”
“That’s definitely where it started. From that [Nov. 4] game on — there might have been a lull [in two games against the Philadelphia Flyers around Thanksgiving] — but since then, it’s been steady uphill,” Barzal said. “I say that game was a turning point for me. That game set me off. I don’t know why or what had happened. When you play a team like that where you know it’s just going to be a battle and you just get a little dirty, that kind of becomes natural and the standard.”
At this pace, Barzal is on pace to put up one of the best statistical seasons he’s ever recorded at the NHL level. If this level of production holds, he’s flirting with 25 goals and 56 assists for 81 points. That goal mark would be a career-best while the assists and points would be second only to his 2017-18 season when he won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
He’s also on track to annihilate his personal best for shots on goal (179 in 2018-19) and attempts (295 in 2019-20) in a season as he’s already landed 72 shots on 122 attempts. In a 78-game pace, that equates to 255 shots on goal on 432 attempts.
But what’s made the game feel so good to him lately is his defensive play. He’s already coaxed 34 takeaways this season (a pace of 120) when his previous career-high was 70 in 2019-20.
“Defensively, I feel like I’m enjoying forechecking and trying to strip guys and be crafty,” Barzal said. “That’s not something I necessarily liked to do in the past but I feel like I’m finding joy and I’m finding fun in doing that kind of stuff… I’m finding excitement in wanting to be a good checker. My mentality is trying to add a little more [Casey Cizikas] to my game.”
