Streaking Start to the Season for Mathew Barzal

Upon inking his three-year extension with the New York Islanders, Mathew Barzal made it a point to articulate the high expectations he'd set for himself as he entered his fourth NHL season.
In the five weeks since he agreed to terms on his deal and now, nearly one-fourth of the way into this year's abbreviated 56-game season, Barzal has showed signs of maturation in his game.

Having already established a career-high with an eight-game point streak, the centerman further extended the streak to nine games added an assist in the Islanders' dominant 3-1 smothering over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night. With the helper, Barzal's production in this stretch rings in at 11 points (4G, 7A).
On the very play that kept his point-streak intact last night against Buffalo, Barzal's forecheck served as a catalyst leading up to Anders Lee's first-period goal. Barzal started the sequence by throwing a hit along the boards against Sam Reinhart that forced a turnover. He then fed a loose puck out to Josh Bailey in the high slot where Bailey set up Anders Lee for a tip-in down low to get the Islanders on the board.

"He was a big part of the first goal," Trotz said. "Getting a hit, separating the player from the puck and then, getting it over to [Bailey]. I thought he had more stop in his game. He wasn't drifting. It was more straight line. D-zone is more straight line and reading off your wingers, where players are and communicating with your D. I thought he did a better job."
Throughout the last nine games, Barzal has played to his unique strengths and continued to try and round out all aspects of his game.
He's certainly had his share of iconic moments through constructing dazzling passing sequences or sizzling across the ice with speed. Barzal is doing it against some tough matchups from opposing teams. But most prominently, Barzal has been noticeably more active in the less-enchanting action away from the puck, utilizing his elite skating to pick pockets and pressure the opposition.
It's hasn't been a rarity this season to see No. 13 in on the grunt of action. Whether it's been trying relentlessly to recover a loose puck or applying pesky pressure to force a turnover by catching his opponent off guard through using the very same assets, his speed and skating, that make him a potent offensive threat, he's made himself just as equally a headache to attack against. Just ask John Marino, whom Barzal hounded in overtime on Thursday, chasing the Penguins defenseman around his net and up the boards before ultimately stripping the puck and creating a chance the other way.
In the faceoff circle, the right-shot has already shown improvements with his 51.4 FOW%, compared to last season's 41.6 FOW% through 68 regular-season games.

"I'm just doing things like bearing down on faceoffs, I try to back check hard, little things like that really makes a difference," Barzal said. "If you're engaged in the faceoff right away, that just starts your shift and now, you're engaged for the whole shift. I'd maybe credit that to my early success. Otherwise, I'm just trying to play my game, move my feet and shoot the puck a little bit more."
Since breaking into the NHL and cracking the Islanders lineup, Barzal has led the team in scoring for three seasons-straight and racked up 60-plus points in each campaign. This season, the Coquitlam, British Columbia native is on pace to maintain that trajectory; he's averaging a point per game (1.07) and is atop Islanders' leaderboard with 15 points (6G, 9A) through 14 contests.
The bulk of the goals he's scored this season have broken through in pivotal moments and provided his team an extra burst of momentum or in some cases, a temporary sigh of relief.
On Jan. 31 and in the second game of the Islanders seven-game point streak (4-0-3), Barzal delivered the tying goal to send the game against Philadelphia into overtime late in the third period. Anders Lee won the initial foot-race over Justin Braun and Barzal joined the play for a two-on-rush where he buried Lee's feed from the slot.
Against Pittsburgh on Feb. 11, Barzal made a read as the puck was rimmed along the boards. He collected the puck in the Islanders' d-zone and fled up the ice for a one-on-one against Penguins Pierre-Oliver Joseph. Barzal beat the rookie defenseman with an inside-out move before snapping in his shot far-side.

On Saturday, the Islanders got back in the win column. Barzal scored his game-winner over Boston as he blasted in a one-timer from the left-faceoff circle following a snazzy feed from Lee, who was below the hash marks.
While a nine-game streak, or even 14 games into a regular season, is a small sample size to deduct any sort of conclusion off of, this recent stretch for Barzal has been promising. But no matter how impressive it's been at times, there's always room for improvement and continued growth. In Trotz's eyes, the experienced coach has worked closely with several high-caliber players over his career - that's one year shy (22) as Barzal is old - knows that only time and the player's commitment will continue to foster that maturation and hopefully, help to further assert the dominance of a special player like Barzal.
"My goal is to make Mathew Barzal the best player he could possibly be - and that's on both sides of the puck," Trotz said. "I can't do or teach some of the stuff that he's capable of. At the same time, I hopefully can help him from the standpoint of the team concept, offensively and defensively of how he can have the puck more, be more productive and be an even more important player than he already is for us. My goal in time would be for Mathew to be my last-minute draw guy offensively and defensively. To be that guy that late in the game, is killing penalties and those types of things - that would be my ultimate goal. Do we get there? I don't know - that's the process -but there's areas of his game that are continuing to get better. He's a terrific young man, he's got an abundance of skill. He can be as good as he wants to be."