The stage is set for the Islanders, returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2016, with Game 1 of their first-round series against the Penguins set for Wednesday night at the Coliseum. As the spotlight searches the arena for a leading man, it will eventually focus on No. 13 in the home-blue sweater — and whether that’s good or bad is up to Mat Barzal.
The Islanders’ 21-year-old center is the reigning Calder Trophy winner, who spent a season under first-year coach Barry Trotz learning that he can’t win every game by himself. Even as the accolades kept coming, including his first All-Star appearance, Barzal constantly talked about just wanting to make the playoffs.
Well, now it’s here. The reward is a one-on-one matchup with Sidney Crosby, whose bust for the Hall of Fame was sculpted a long time ago.
“I think he’s almost a hockey wizard, a god almost,” Barzal said about Crosby after Tuesday’s practice on Long Island at which he was flying around like he was already thinking about playing against one of his idols.
“Like every play he makes is so hard and so crisp. He does things and sees things so fast, when you’re watching sometimes, he makes every play that you see from a bird’s-eye view. Everything that’s open, he makes, which is unbelievable. That’s what so special about him.”
Barzal met Crosby at this year’s All-Star weekend in San Jose, calling him “a super down-to-earth, focused dude.” But that has not stopped Barzal from champing at the bit to want to get his first taste of postseason hockey against one of the best.
“I’m a 21-year-old getting to go up against one of the best players in the world — if not the best. A guy I grew up watching. So it’s pretty special for me,” Barzal said. “I’m a competitor, too. I love being out there competing, playing with some fire. So I’m excited.”
Barzal has had to adjust to points not coming in the same volume this season as they did playing the wide-open style under former coach Doug Weight. Those Islanders were the worst defensive team in the league last season, but Barzal put up 85 points and was a runaway for Rookie of the Year.
This season, he finished with 18 goals and 62 points while playing in all 82 games. Still a pass-first type of player, it was shocking he was able to put up only one goal in the final 24 games of the regular season. Trotz has had a couple of different analogies for it, notably saying he doesn’t want Barzal to turn into a “one-trick pony,” and that he thinks the young charge had heeded that advice to some extent.
“He always thinks of himself as a playmaker,” Trotz said. “I just said, ‘You have to make sure you have a curveball and a fastball, and use both of them and do that a little bit more.’ And he has. I don’t think he has [any] frustration at all.”
Winning has made it a little easier on Barzal. His line with Anders Lee and Jordan Eberle had its moments, but the success has come when the club is getting contributions from everyone.
For most of the season, Barzal has accepted that for the sake of winning.
“Obviously everybody had to sacrifice a little bit just to get the goals [against] down and become a playoff team,” he said. “That’s just what it takes. As a player, the last 20-25 games especially, defensively and backchecking and playing hard — playing to win — I think I got that back in my game. I lost a little bit of that last year, playing free and all that stuff. It’s fun and it works, but it may not work consistently towards winning.
“The goal this year at the start of the year was to win, right? So it didn’t matter who you were or what role you had, you do your job. That’s why we’re in the playoffs.”
Now his job is matching up with Crosby on the grand postseason stage, and it’s to be seen how Barzal handles the heat of that spotlight.