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Player Discussion: Mathew Barzal

Frankie41987

Frankie41987

Registered User
Feb 1, 2007
1,287
485
Kings Park
I’m gonna say 75 points for Barzal. I think being the sole focus for opposing defenses as well as playing in a more structured defensively responsible system will lead to a slight reduction in points. I do expect better power play numbers however. I know everyone gets upset when someone suggests that having Tavares on the top line made it easier for the 2nd line, but that doesn’t take anything about from Barzal.
 
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aronjudge11

aronjudge11

Registered User
Jul 2, 2017
1,017
222
65 points. The coaching system alone should drop his points 15%. No JT, teams are now going to be targeting him, trying to injure him, Lee Eberle unlikely to see past the trade deadline...which means Nelson will be gone also...big end of season drop off.
 
aronjudge11

aronjudge11

Registered User
Jul 2, 2017
1,017
222
Yes teams intentionally target the very best players to get them out of the lineup. They tried many times with Tavares, they sent Lafontaine off the ice on a stretcher in the playoffs, the leafs intentionally injured peca, and KJ....many people would think all these guys are good guys...truth is they are not a lot of them tell the player during the game they will break their leg. Darcy Tucker told peca that before he did it. It's the same in football. Even a guy like Crosby who makes hundreds of extra millions for the league, still has players that would love to end his season on any given night.
 
BarBeauWahlDobLok

BarBeauWahlDobLok

Registered User
Sep 5, 2014
1,784
393
I'm a huge fan of his. He was THE reason why I looked forward to every game last year. But I missed something, how did he become "Tank Barzal"?
 

Islesfan22

Registered User
Jan 15, 2013
6,775
2,645
Rockland
Ye I remember Rags fans shaking the ambulance Lafontaine was in trying to flip it. The cheap shots are a lot less then they used to be as the suspensions are pretty strict. If Hunter did that to Turgeon in today’s game he would have been banned from hockey instead he got a slap on the wrist.
 
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BelovedIsles

BelovedIsles

Registered User
Oct 22, 2005
20,349
5,585
Frankie41987 said:
I’m gonna say 75 points for Barzal. I think being the sole focus for opposing defenses as well as playing in a more structured defensively responsible system will lead to a slight reduction in points. I do expect better power play numbers however. I know everyone gets upset when someone suggests that having Tavares on the top line made it easier for the 2nd line, but that doesn’t take anything about from Barzal.
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Truth be told for half a season he saw top pairing D; teams were routinely putting out there best D against his line.

With that said, I agree w everything you said. Teams are going to focus their gameplan around stopping him and won’t be caught flat footed this time.

Roughly 75 pts.
 
BarBeauWahlDobLok

BarBeauWahlDobLok

Registered User
Sep 5, 2014
1,784
393
Spybot said:
He became known as Tank Barzal when Butch misspoke and called him that once during a game. It's mostly a twitter thing as far as I know. I'll see if I can find a clip of him saying that.

Edit: Here

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He was so close with "Mark" Not really sure how he jumped to "Tank", but Butch is a genius. Kind of like our own little Phil Rizzuto.
 
PK Cronin

PK Cronin

Bailey Fan Club Prez
Feb 11, 2013
34,247
23,594
BelovedIsles said:
Truth be told for half a season he saw top pairing D; teams were routinely putting out there best D against his line.

With that said, I agree w everything you said. Teams are going to focus their gameplan around stopping him and won’t be caught flat footed this time.

Roughly 75 pts.
Click to expand...

A lot of people, not claiming you are, just look and see he was matched up against top lines, but don't take it a step further.

A few things to consider for anyone not worried about other teams having their top units focusing solely on Barzal:

1) Having another star player means Barzal is getting a fraction of the defensive attention that he will if he's a star player.
2) It doesn't take into account the fatigue the defense may experience when getting hit with a 1-2 punch, which would help Barzal produce.
3) In game coaching becomes more of a challenge defensively and it's easier to get more favorable match ups for Barzal's line because the other team has to balance between shutting down two lines.
4) For at least half of the season he wasn't drawing those tough match ups as often. That means he was able to get going a little bit easier early on and wasn't playing with the same effort as later in the season in order to succeed.

The question is, how much of an impact all of the things above had on Barzal's great season? Can he do it again? It's really short-sighted to just point out that he went against tough match ups without any context. I think he's good enough to get back to where he was, but I'm not expecting a bunch of 5 point nights again.
 
BelovedIsles

BelovedIsles

Registered User
Oct 22, 2005
20,349
5,585
PK Cronin said:
A lot of people, not claiming you are, just look and see he was matched up against top lines, but don't take it a step further.

A few things to consider for anyone not worried about other teams having their top units focusing solely on Barzal:

1) Having another star player means Barzal is getting a fraction of the defensive attention that he will if he's a star player.
2) It doesn't take into account the fatigue the defense may experience when getting hit with a 1-2 punch, which would help Barzal produce.
3) In game coaching becomes more of a challenge defensively and it's easier to get more favorable match ups for Barzal's line because the other team has to balance between shutting down two lines.
4) For at least half of the season he wasn't drawing those tough match ups as often. That means he was able to get going a little bit easier early on and wasn't playing with the same effort as later in the season in order to succeed.

The question is, how much of an impact all of the things above had on Barzal's great season? Can he do it again? It's really short-sighted to just point out that he went against tough match ups without any context. I think he's good enough to get back to where he was, but I'm not expecting a bunch of 5 point nights again.
Click to expand...

Spot on. You pretty much elaborated on what I was trying to get at. Teams are going to focus their attention and game plan around him; he drives the offense. He’ll be better equipped due to facing tough matchups for a half a season, but I don’t expect him to have the time and space to free wheel like he did a season ago. Which Trotz’s system will compound. We may see a frustrated Barzal for parts of the season.
 
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sabremike

sabremike

Friend To All Giraffes And Lindy Ruff
Aug 30, 2010
22,885
34,508
Brewster, NY
The Barzilla is going to singlehandedly give me my money's worth as a STH right? I'm thinking after tonight the answer is yes.
 
BelovedIsles

BelovedIsles

Registered User
Oct 22, 2005
20,349
5,585
My only gripes w him is that he doesn’t shoot enough and he has to keep his head up when he’s sweeping through the neutral zone.
 
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