Mat Barzal is one of the bigger hockey fans you will find, which means he understands how he is perceived throughout the league.
He knows that for all he means for the Islanders, there is a class of players that has produced at a higher rate than him — and that even if a defensive system may not have helped his production over the last few seasons, the best way to prove he belongs in first class is to produce like he is in first class.
Well, through the season’s first 24 games, Barzal has 23 points in 23 matches (he missed Saturday’s win over the Panthers with an illness).
That puts him on pace to average a point per game for the first time since his Calder Trophy-winning entrance onto the NHL scene, despite a full-time move to the wing.
“I feel like, inconsistently, I’ve always thought of myself there,” Barzal told The Post on Tuesday morning before the Islanders’ 5-4 overtime loss to the Sharks. “So, just feel like my consistency level in the past hasn’t been as high. I’ll have games where I feel like I’m in that class and then games where I feel like I’m not as consistent.”
Try to parse through why and the answer is a little more complicated. There is Bo Horvat, who might be the most talented player Barzal has skated with in his career. There is the power play, which has recovered from an atrocious 2022-23 campaign to produce at a high level. There is coach Lane Lambert, who has given Barzal more leeway than he might have enjoyed under Barry Trotz.
Then there is Barzal himself, finding self-actualization seven seasons into his career. Confidence is pouring from him as a result.
“I’d say it’s just a being-26-[years-old] thing,” he said. “I had [confidence] kinda early on. I kinda lost it. Kinda lost my confidence there for a little bit.”
Hang on. Back up. What was that?
“Not that it really affected my game a ton,” Barzal went on. “It’s just that level of being in the top tier versus maybe not for me might just be a confidence thing. Cause when I’m playing with confidence, can go off instincts. And doing what I know I can do out there. I know I can be one of the top players in the league.”
Let’s be clear, Barzal was not saying he wasn’t confident at any point over the last seven seasons, when the portrait of him circling the ice looking in vain for someone to pass the puck to became a little too common. Not quite.
“It’s more just, there’s tiers to confidence,” he said. “I feel like right now, I’m kinda at that point, I remember in my rookie season, just scoring every night. Every day, confidence is high and that kinda stuff. Lately we’ve been scoring at a good rate. Maybe that’s part of it, the actual production. Seeing the puck go in the net a little more.”
The operative difference between then and now, as Barzal happily acknowledges, is that playing under Trotz for so long gave him an appreciation for playing winning hockey that he perhaps didn’t fully have at age 20, playing on a team that finished 35-37-10.
“That year was a lot of fun. I was able to do whatever I wanted without any consequences of us winning of losing,” Barzal said. “We’re a win-now organization right now. And I feel like my game’s very well-rounded. So trying to be better away from the puck. Takeaways, backchecking especially. Big thing, trying to impact the game on other levels. Finding enjoyment in doing that kind of stuff.”
Barzal talking up the defensive side of his game is nothing new. Talking about the joy in the little things, though? That’s a little different.
“When you’re young and you’re hungry, it’s just all about scoring. It’s literally all about scoring that first year or two years in the league, all about your scoring,” he said. “Now that I’m 26 and actually learning and having Barry and Lou [Lamoriello] here for those years, it taught me there’s more to the game than just that.
“I feel like especially the last 15 games, really finding joy in play away from the puck and being tricky with my stick and stealing pucks, stuff like that. Just trying to evolve my game, really.”
An evolution into first class.
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