DALLAS — Mathew Barzal’s father, Mike, has a goal of visiting all 31 road arenas within the NHL. With the Islanders completing a swing through Nashville and Dallas during their current four-game trip, he decided to knock those two off his list.
That meant that when Barzal broke his season-long scoring drought on Saturday with a pair of goals within the Islanders’ 5-2 loss to the Stars, Mike got to be there.
Mike isn’t going with the team to Toronto — Barzal said there’s still “quite a number of” road cities left for his dad to get to — but when there’s one overarching positive from Saturday’s loss, it’s the middle getting on the scoresheet.
“It’s nice anytime you rating,” Barzal said, “whether it’s your first or your thirtieth. I used to be never bothered by it. It didn’t matter to me in any respect. It’s nearly making an impact.”
Nobody can deny that Barzal was making an impact, whilst he didn’t rating through the Islanders’ first 18 games. He’s averaging an assist per game, with 19 in total after Saturday, and has been their best player at times. It’s the form of production the Islanders would have signed up for from their star before the season.
Nevertheless, the shortage of scoring was hanging over him, and after he deflected Alexander Romanov’s shot into the Dallas net at 1:30 of the second period, Barzal was grinning from ear to ear. He would add a second goal later within the period, with a wrist shot from the slot on the facility play at 14:59.
It was a an evening of mixed results, because the Islanders lost a game they might have won and Barzal himself was primarily answerable for one in every of the Stars’ goals, letting Jamie Benn handle the puck all through him at the tip of a shift that lasted 2:26, resulting in Radek Faksa tying the rating at 1-1.
“It was nice to see him get on the board,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We want him doing that. Definitely, I assumed he was a bit drained on that play. He was higher tonight and proceed to take a look at him and look forward for him to hold our team offensively.”
Barzal and his teammates had previously downplayed the scoring drought, pointing to his strong play in other areas, and it was no different when the drought ended.
“All of us knew it was coming,” Anders Lee said. “He’s gotten those looks before, he’s gotten those touches. We are able to stop worrying about that and begin seeing him doing it more often. I don’t think that was as big a deal because it got made up.”
Josh Bailey was back within the lineup after sitting the past two games as a healthy scratch, skating 14:48 with a shot on net.
Saturday marked Kyle Palmieri’s 700th NHL game and Adam Pelech’s four-hundredth.
DALLAS — Mathew Barzal’s father, Mike, has a goal of visiting all 31 road arenas within the NHL. With the Islanders completing a swing through Nashville and Dallas during their current four-game trip, he decided to knock those two off his list.
That meant that when Barzal broke his season-long scoring drought on Saturday with a pair of goals within the Islanders’ 5-2 loss to the Stars, Mike got to be there.
Mike isn’t going with the team to Toronto — Barzal said there’s still “quite a number of” road cities left for his dad to get to — but when there’s one overarching positive from Saturday’s loss, it’s the middle getting on the scoresheet.
“It’s nice anytime you rating,” Barzal said, “whether it’s your first or your thirtieth. I used to be never bothered by it. It didn’t matter to me in any respect. It’s nearly making an impact.”
Nobody can deny that Barzal was making an impact, whilst he didn’t rating through the Islanders’ first 18 games. He’s averaging an assist per game, with 19 in total after Saturday, and has been their best player at times. It’s the form of production the Islanders would have signed up for from their star before the season.
Nevertheless, the shortage of scoring was hanging over him, and after he deflected Alexander Romanov’s shot into the Dallas net at 1:30 of the second period, Barzal was grinning from ear to ear. He would add a second goal later within the period, with a wrist shot from the slot on the facility play at 14:59.
It was a an evening of mixed results, because the Islanders lost a game they might have won and Barzal himself was primarily answerable for one in every of the Stars’ goals, letting Jamie Benn handle the puck all through him at the tip of a shift that lasted 2:26, resulting in Radek Faksa tying the rating at 1-1.
“It was nice to see him get on the board,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We want him doing that. Definitely, I assumed he was a bit drained on that play. He was higher tonight and proceed to take a look at him and look forward for him to hold our team offensively.”
Barzal and his teammates had previously downplayed the scoring drought, pointing to his strong play in other areas, and it was no different when the drought ended.
“All of us knew it was coming,” Anders Lee said. “He’s gotten those looks before, he’s gotten those touches. We are able to stop worrying about that and begin seeing him doing it more often. I don’t think that was as big a deal because it got made up.”
Josh Bailey was back within the lineup after sitting the past two games as a healthy scratch, skating 14:48 with a shot on net.
Saturday marked Kyle Palmieri’s 700th NHL game and Adam Pelech’s four-hundredth.
