The Winter Soldier
Registered User
- Apr 4, 2011
- 70,806
- 21,012
Barzal went through this weird portion of the season with Islander fans where we went:
1.) wow he's pretty good, hopefully he keeps it up.
2.) this guy is going to be a great second line center to Tavares
3.) and then we had this portion of the season where some of us were thinking he actually is BETTER than Tavares.
Don't get me wrong, they are two totally different players, but Barzal is all about where this game is going. The slower skating players are not where this game is heading towards. People on here tend to forget just how highly touted he was going into his draft year before an off ice injury ruined his season. This is a guy who most likely would've been a top five pick and the only reason he would not have been the #1 forward was because of how highly touted and ready McDavid and Eichel were.
If I had to nitpick on Barzal it would be that I would like the shot to get a bit faster, but the thing is with how fast he is and how accurate a passer he is he finds space to get a shot off all the time.
Going from Capuano and Weight to Trotz is going to do wonders for Barzal. Trotz has had players go through slumps and had players take on bigger roles than before, he has EXPERIENCE dealing with situations such as this. Barzal will be fine this season no matter how bad the team does. It may take him a little while to get used to playing top defenses all the time, but he will get used to it because of his immense skill set.
Barzal is going to be fine. After the christmas break teams were equally if not more matching him up with top pairing and or top lines. As great as his season was, and it bodes well for him his scoring did not tail off, as much as we were reminded by some the sample of games is too small, he kept passing each hurdle people put in his way. He didn't score until his 6th game for those that remember despite playing well. He had 85 points in his last 76 games in reality. This is quality production.