GDT: #18| New York Rangers @ New York Islanders | November 15th | 7:00 PM | F/W 7-5

[periferal]

My take on the whole Barzal thing from the BT perspective is that he had to do what he did to send the message that you can't take a bad penalty in that situation, but deep down he secretly loves that Barzy is no pretty boy looking for help from mama when things get a little rough. He'll learn to pick his spots and to not be stupid about exposing himself to unnecessary risks to his health.

If Trotz could make Ovechkin a better player...Barzal is in good hands.

 

[Glory Days]

Trotz leaned on Filppula (13:11 of even-strength ice time Thursday, well above his 11:35 average for the year), Komarov (13:51 vs. 11:28) and Tom Kuhnhackl (13:53 vs. 10:28) while keeping Barzal (11:19 vs. 13:49) and Jordan Eberle (11:13 vs. 13:21) on the bench late. The work is the thing, remember, not the ability or the desire to turn a three-goal lead into four or five.
“When it’s getting off the rails, they can settle things down,” Trotz said. “Some other guys, they look at the score and go, ‘Let’s get some more.’ They try things they shouldn’t. They take a penalty when they don’t need to.”

 

[TommytheCat]

Agree but, let me say one thing here. The kid has to defend himself. The game was too tight to do anything about it but I saw I believe Howden coming after Barzal up high and Matt brought his stick up in self defense. Understood it was a penalty at a crucial point but someone has to end that. Howden is a big kid and kudos for drawing a penalty but I hope some of our more physical players take note of Howden for the return matchup at MSG.

prior to that penalty howden was holding barzals stick and barzal popped him in the head a few times like let go mf , let go ... i’m with the group that says put ross out there for a few shifts with barzy late in the game ... better yet keep him on the bench if we are up and put the closers on the ice

 

[DerekKingSnipes]

prior to that penalty howden was holding barzals stick and barzal popped him in the head a few times like let go mf , let go ... i’m with the group that says put ross out there for a few shifts with barzy late in the game ... better yet keep him on the bench if we are up and put the closers on the ice

I think the fact hit punched in head three times and had it let go probably contributed he took a stupid penalty at a time where it gave rangers life. Trotz knows what is he doing and Barzal seems like the kind of kid that will use this as a positive. I’m sure Trotz sees Barzal as not only a top offensive center but a top player in all situations eventually.

 

[notDatsyuk]

See and I think that smart and hard working make you a great player. I'd rather watch overachievers b/c of hard work than the Yashin, Kavasha, and Ho-Sang's of the world who have lots of talent, but mediocre smarts/effort.

Me too. I guess I should have said "not greatly talented".