Mathew Barzal is a major work in progress for Islanders coach Doug Weight
Mathew Barzal of the Islanders is introduced as one of the stars of the game against the Rangers at Barclays Center on Feb. 15, 2018. Credit: Jim McIsaac
CALGARY, Alberta — Mathew Barzal is the presumptive winner of the Calder Trophy and will be a featured face of the Islanders for years to come, John Tavares or no John Tavares.
But Barzal also is 20, with creative energy that at times goes down counterproductive paths.
Coach Doug Weight and his staff thus face an ongoing balance in developing the rookie star — enjoying his gifts while working with him to sand off the rough edges.
The good news is that Weight said Barzal has been “100 percent” receptive.
“He wants to do the right things and he wants to learn,” the coach said on Saturday after the team practiced in Banff before busing here for Sunday’s game against the Flames.
“So he’s in there the next day and he’s always the guy that first comes up to [assistant Scott Gomez] and then to me and says, ‘I screwed up. I don’t know what I was thinking. I got excited.’
“Those have to become farther between, but any time you have a [John] Tavares or a [Josh] Bailey or a guy who has that creativeness, they’re going to try things.”
So it was on Thursday, when Barzal tried a fancy move with 2:10 left in overtime against the Oilers. He turned it over to Connor McDavid, arguably the best hockey player in the world, then had to pull him down on the ensuing breakaway.
McDavid hit the post on his penalty shot, and Barzal never left the bench again in OT or the shootout, which the Islanders lost, 2-1.
“It’s not something I should be doing in overtime, especially in a big game,” Barzal said. “[Weight] didn’t have to say anything. I mean, I deserved to not play the rest of that overtime. That was a bad turnover and a lazy turnover.
“There’s a difference between turning the puck over on a hard turnover, trying to make a good play, and just trying to be fancy.”
Weight said his message was simple: “It’s Connor and you’re the last guy back, and there are times where you can protect that puck and you can still get by a guy without doing that fancy stuff, and he was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ ”
On Friday, Weight suggested that he skipped Barzal in the shootout because of that miscue. On Saturday, he said it was more complicated than that, adding that he considers various factors for his shootout lineup.
“I don’t think it was: ‘Barzy turned it over, he’s not playing the last two minutes, he’s not going in the shootout,’ ” Weight said. “It probably looks like that because he’d be a no-brainer.”
Weight had a hunch about Anthony Beauvillier for the second round, and “it didn’t pay off.”
Weight said there are times when Barzal is “the star of the film,” meaning he gets called out for mistakes in video review, and “he’s got to see it in front of his teammates, because they get frustrated. But they also know that he’s going to create a lot of those times, too.”
Said Barzal, “I’m a creative player, and I think Dougie knows that. He does a great job of putting me in situations where I’ll have the best chance of succeeding.”
Barzal has succeeded more often than not, but he remains a work in progress.
“What you say as a coach is: ‘I’m not going away,’ ” Weight said. “So every day you’re going to see it and every day you’re going to talk about it — good, bad, great. You’re going to talk about it. And he’s receptive, so that makes it easy.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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