Mathew Barzal was forced to watch Islanders collapse after gut-wrenching injury: It killed me
Mat Barzal didn’t make it a secret how miserable it was for him to watch the Islanders slip out of the playoff race, unable to do anything about it.The 27-year-old from Coquitlam, British Columbia, had already missed time early in the season, working his way back from an upper-body injury, only for his left kneecap to break just six weeks later when Barzal blocked a shot.He missed the season’s final 10 weeks after undergoing surgery, and without him the Islanders suffered a disastrous finish, dropping 11 of their final 14 games and getting eliminated from the race in Game 78 of 82.“You miss so many moments,” Barzal said at breakup day after the season ended.“Boys come back from the road, talking about the road trip at the lunch table.
Watching the games, having a big road win.There’s nothing better than going on the road and winning a big game.
Just not being able to be a part of that stuff, it killed me.“I’m not sugarcoating it.It was horrible mentally.”The what-if of Barzal’s health could, in time, turn into one of the greater what-ifs in franchise history for the Islanders.At the time he got hurt, the Islanders were playing their best hockey of the season.
Including the win in Tampa on the night Barzal got hurt defending a lead late in regulation — the Islanders allowed the game-tying goal but won in overtime — the club had won seven in a row, with Barzal notching six points during that span.His was far from the only injury, with the Islanders suffering a trio of hits to their blue line around the same time, but it seemed to be the breaking point.The Isles lost five of their next six on either side of the 4 Nations break, and aside from increasingly rare fits and starts, couldn’t get their offense going for the rest of the season.If Barzal had stayed healthy, would the Islanders have been in better position at the trade deadline and hung onto Brock Nelson? Would they have snuck into the playoffs and perhaps kept Lou Lamoriello as gen...